“361 
I have worked out the case of two independent variables, 
but the method I have adopted is applicable to an equation of 
any number of independents. It is shewn that in every in- 
_tegral certain constants, ealled germs, exist, or can be arbitrarily 
introduced into it if they do not already exist there; and by 
means of these a germ-integral can be found; and from this 
a series of sub-integrals; and the sum of these is the general 
integral of the proposed equation. 
This method depends for its success on the circumstance 
that the differential equation from which the sub-integrals are 
obtained contains fewer independent variables than the pro- 
posed equation. Hence when the equation to be integrated is 
the general differential equation of the second order of two 
independent variables and constant coefficients, the sub-inte- 
grals are to be found from a differential equation of the second 
order of one independent variable ; and by its integration that 
of the general equation of the second order is accomplished. 
The same method is shewn to be successful in the inte- 
gration of certain other equations where the coefficients are not 
constants, but functions of the independent variables. 
Nov. 80, 1874. 
ProFessor HuMPHRY in the Chair. 
(1) On Lopsided Generation, or Right-handedness. 
By W. Atysuiz Hous, M.D. Cantab. This paper 
was read by Professor Humphry in the absence of 
Dr Hollis. 
The antiquity and universality of the preferential use of the 
right hand was shewn by reference to the Biblical and other 
