ON SECTIONS OF MOUNTAIN-LIMESTONE CORALS. 1G5 



body (dependent always on the perfection of the respiratory process) decreases, 

 and at last the respiratory change is prohibited altogether. 



It is imj)ortant in the extrcmest degree to remember the fact thus named in 

 the treatment of cases of poisoning during which the animal heat is reduced. It 

 will often turn the scale, in such instances, in favour of return to life, simply 

 to place the body in a warm and dry air. 



The fact is also of great interest, in a practical and physiological point of 

 view, in relation to the phenomena of some exhaustive diseases. The cold 

 sweats that are seen on the surface of the body in syncope, in the later stages 

 of phthisis pulmonalis, and on the approach of death in many diseases, as 

 also the chest-rattles, are due to the cause I have named'above — condensation. 

 They are evidences that the body has not sufficient power or force to produce 

 a rapid natural evaporation of water from the exhaling surfaces. 



Report of the Committee appointed to get cut and prepared Sections of 

 Mountain-Limestone Corals for the purpose of shoiving their struc- 

 ture by means of Photography. The Committee consists of James 

 ThomsoNj F.G.S., ««(/ Professor Harkness, i^.ii./S'. 



In our Report of last year we gave in detail the probable additions to our 

 present list of fossil corals from the Mountain Limestone. 



During the past year we have had several hundred specimens cut. 

 Although many of these have been more or less spoiled, and their internal 

 structure crushed and broken to such an extent that their specific characters 

 cannot with any degree of certainty be made out, yet many of them reveal 

 important structural characters which will enable us to add both genera and 

 species to those before indicated. Many of the specimens cut have well- 

 preserved calicos, which will enable us to figure and describe both their 

 internal structure and external aspect, with a degree of certainty hitherto 

 unknown. 



Although much progi'css has been made, we are convinced that many othei 

 facts will be revealed by further investigation ; and we hope the Committee 

 will be reappointed in order that we may continue this important inquiry. 



We have not added any additional photographic plates to those exhibited 

 last year at Liverpool. "We were desirous of getting as large a number of 

 specimens cut as the sum at our disposal would permit, in order that we 

 might select the most characteristic generic forms for further plates. 



At Liverpool we indicated that we were in the hopes of reproducing the 

 most delicate structures by another process, which would be more serviceable 

 for the purpose of publication. In this we are glad to state that we have 

 been successful. By a simple process we are enabled to transfer the details 

 of both genera and species to copper plates, from which any number of 

 copies can be reproduced, of which we will avail ourselves when we are ready 

 to publish in extenso. (Two plates so prepared were exhibited.) 



We have placed in the British Museum and the Hunterian Museum of 

 Glasgow duplicates of a number of the cut specimens which have already 

 been described ; other duplicates will be sent when they have been described 

 and named. 



