i8 



HISTORr of the SOCIETr, 



1795- 

 Feb. 2. 

 Dr Anderfon on 

 the riialving of 

 indi?o. 



ExcracT: of a 

 letter from 

 W. Hall, Efq; 



for the year 1794. This abflradl, with thofe for 1795 and 

 1 796, rhake the laft of the Phyfical papers in this volume. 



At this meeting Dr Anderson alfo read a paper on the Ma- 

 king of Indigo at Tranquebar, by Dr Anderson of Madras. 



An extraifl of a letter from W. Hall, Efqj of Whitehall, 

 Berwickfhire, was read, giving an Account of a Great Degree 

 of Cold which he had obferved on the Evening of the 2 2d of 

 January, when the Thermometer Hood between 5 and 6 degrees 

 below o of Fahrenheit's fcale. 



March 2. 



Dx Wilibn on 

 the eftfcds of 

 opium on rhe 

 living animal. 



Phyj, CI. Dr Alexander Wilson read the firft part of a pa- 

 per, concerning the EfFe(5ls of Opium on the Living Animal. This 

 paper has been publifhed feparately : An abftradl of it follows. 



Th e difference in the refults of the experiments that have 

 been made to afcertain the effecfts of opium, and the inconfiftency 

 of the conclufions deduced from them, led Dr Wilson to enter 

 on tjhe experimental inveftigation contained in this paper. The 

 firft point which he endeavours to afcertain is, whether opi- 

 um, applied to the internal furface of the heart, is capable of 

 fo affedling its nerves, as to a<fl: on thofe of every part of the 

 body, producing the general convulfions obferved on injecting 

 a folution of this drug into the heart or blood- veflels. It "ap- 

 pears from his experiments, that the only effects of the applica- 

 tion of opium to the internal furface of the heart, are thofe of 

 interrupting its motion, and deftroying its irritability ; and that 

 when convulfions fucceed, they are owing to the opium being 

 conveyed along the aorta, and immediately applied to the brain. 

 It has alfo been afTerted, that opium, applied to diftant parts of 

 the body, is capable of affecfling the motion of the heart, through 

 the medium of the nervous fyftem. Injedled into the cavity of 



the 



