312 Proceedings of Societies. 
would be to destroy, by neutralizing its acidity, the solvent properties of 
the digestive fluid tending to penetrate and act upon the texture of the 
organ. The blood being stagnant after death, the opposing influence is 
lost that is offered by the circulating current. Should life happen to be 
cut short at a period of digestion, there is only the neutralizing power of 
the blood actually contained in the vessels of the stomach, to impede the 
progress of attack upon the organ itself; and the consequence is, that 
digestion of its parietes proceeds, as long as the temperature remains 
favourable for the process, and the solvent power of the digestive liquid 
is unexhausted. ‘There is therefore no want of harmony between the 
effect that occurs after death, and the explanation that refers the protec- 
tion afforded during life to the neutralizing influence of the circulation. 
*¢On the Renal Organ—the so-called Water System—in the Nudibran- 
chiate Molluscs.” By Mr Anpany Hancock. 
“On the Renal Organ of the Aplysia.’”? By Professor Rotiesron. 
‘On Cranial Deformities, more especially on the Scaphocephalic Skull.”’ 
By Wiiutam Turner, M.B. 
‘On Life in the Atmosphere.” By James Samuretson.—The author 
described the occurrence of living germs in great quantity in the dust 
conveyed by the atmosphere and in distilled water, and showed that these 
germs retained their vitality for a long time under various vicissitudes. 
He opposed the theory of spontaneous generation; and he suggested 
whether the great rapidity with which these germs are multiplied might 
not account for the spread of epidemic diseases. 
‘On the Means of Passing Unharmed through Noxious Gases or 
Vapours.” By Dr Wuitre.—Dr White remarked—The apparatus which 
I have had constructed for ‘‘ enabling a person to breathe in noxious 
gas” differs essentially from any heretofore used. If any person will 
keep his mouth closed, and by closing and opening either nostril so that 
he shall inhale by one alone, and exhale by the other alternately, and then 
insert a pipe into the nostril by which he inhales, he will understand the 
method of breathing with my apparatus as soon as it is described. It 
consists of two pipes fixed in a metal covering, which is placed over the 
nose and mouth. Each of these pipes is furnished with a valve of vul- 
canised india-rubber, one of which is fixed so that it can be moved only 
inwards, and the other only outwards. These valves are elastic, and of 
so light a material that they are opened and shut by the force of the air, 
moved to and fro in the act of breathing; and, therefore, when the air 
passes through these pipes the person inhales only through one pipe, and 
exhales through the other. Having the end of that by which he breathes 
in a pure atmosphere, the air which enters the lungs is pure, though the 
person is surrounded by noxious vapour. This inhaling pipe may draw 
its supply from the open air at any distance from the body, or it may be. 
supplied from a bag carried on the body. By this plan the supply is 
limited to the size of the bag; by the other the supply is only limited by 
the length of his inhaling pipe. Sometimes one method and sometimes 
the other will be most convenient. The exhaled air passes through its 
pipe into the surrounding foul atmosphere. The flexible valve of the 
exhaling pipe completely prevents ingress of the surrounding gas; and 
therefore the pipe is short; it need not be more than half an inch in 
length. The part of the apparatus which I have described, and which I 
will call the “orinasal cover” and air pipes, is fixed in that part of a 
hood which covers the face. A tippet, made of water-proof cloth, is joined 
to the hood. ‘Two circular pieces of glass are fixed in the hood for 
