Prof. Owen’s Address before the British Association. 423 
more abrupt and seemingly irregular character—Humboldt’s “ magnetic 
storms ”—which occur simultaneously at distant parts of the earth’s sur- 
rt 
years a German astronomer, Schwabe, had set himself the task of daily 
observing and recording the appearance of the sun’s disc, in which time 
he found the spots passed through periodic phases of increase and de- 
r 
period observed in the solar spots. 
lectric Currents in Animals—Galvani arranged the parts of a re- 
cently-mutilated frog so as to bring a nerve in contact with the external 
surface of a muscle, when a contraction of the muscle ensued. In this 
inductive inquiry into the relation of the nerve force to electric force, 
concluded that the contraction was a necessary consequence 0 pas- 
He sup that the electricity was secreted by the brain, and transmit- 
ted by the nerves to different parts of the body, the muscles serving as 
i d showing that 
helped on by the persevering and ingenious experimental es 
Mateucci sod Da Bois Reymond. ‘The latter has shown that any point 
of the surface of a muscle is positive in relation to any point of the di- 
transverse section of the same nerve. as . n the origi 
* rtant conclusions 0 sy 
researches, has deduced impo ing due to the polarized condition of the 
