200 



poet as well as a legislator, to the place where the statue was found, 

 namely, the theatre at Herculaneum. Attention was also directed 

 to the improbability of a later appropriation of a statue in such a 

 peculiar posture, and Dion Chrysostomus was cited to show that 

 even the Rhodians, who had adopted the practice of altering the in- 

 scriptions of honorary statues, abstained from interfering with those 

 which were denned, not only by the name, but by the characteristics 

 of the person represented. 



March 8, 1858. 



A paper was read by Dr. Paget, " On some Instances of remark- 

 able Defects in the Voluntary Muscles." 



Four original cases, in which large and important muscles, such 

 as the pectorals, were wholly absent or in a state of extreme 

 tenuity ; the defects either congenital, or existing from early in- 

 fancy ; limited to certain groups of muscles, and unaccompanied 

 with any defect or deformity of the bones. In three of the cases, 

 the effects symmetrical ; in the fourth confined to one side of the 

 chest. Enormous development of the calves in one of the cases. 



Also a paper was read " On Organic Polarity,"by H. F. Baxter,Esq. 



The object of the paper is to show the intimate connexion that 

 exists between organic force and the ordinary polar forces, such as 

 chemical force, for example. 



The principal experiments, showing that organic action, viz. secre- 

 tion, is accompanied with the manifestation of current force, have 

 already appeared in the Royal Society's ' Transactions ' for the years 

 1848 and 1852; but in the present communication the author 

 enters more minutely into the resemblance between the actions 

 which take place in the voltaic circle and those that occur during 

 secretion than could be prudently attempted in his previous papers. 

 But whatever view may be entertained in regard to the origin of 

 the power in the voltaic circle, whether by mere contact or by 

 chemical action, the decision of this point is of no importance to the 

 question under consideration ; since the manifestation of current 

 force during voltaic action is allowed both by the chemical theorist 

 as well as the contact theorist ; and if we admit the manifestation 

 of this force {current force) to be evidence of polar action in one 

 class of cases, viz. during voltaic action, we are certainly justified 

 in logically concluding that it may be adduced as evidence of polar 

 action in other cases also, viz. during organic action as in secretion. 

 Reference is made to Prof. Graham's researches on osmose. Accord- 

 ing to Prof. Graham, osmose would appear to be dependent upon 

 chemical action, and consequently, should we be disposed to class 

 the phenomena of secretion with those of osmose, we should be 

 thus compelled to acknowledge that the act of secretion must be 

 polar in its nature. 



