544? 



hydrogen gas in atmospheric air, and even, under particular circum- 

 stances, from the flame of a common candle, and also from various 

 other inflammable bodies when burning under certain conditions. 

 The autlior is hence led to the conclusion that this peculiar oxidizing 

 and bleaching principle is produced in all cases of rapid combustion 

 taking place in atmospheric air, and that its production is therefore 

 independent of the nature of the substance which is burnt. 



" On the Structure and Development of the Blood. — First Series. 

 The development of the Blood-Corpuscle in Insects and other In- 

 vertebrata, and its comparison with that of Man and the Vertebrata." 

 B}' George Newport, Esq., F.R.C.S., President of the Entomological 

 Society, &c. Communicated by P. M. Eoget, M.D., Sec. R.S. 



The author commences his paper by remarking, that he w^as led 

 to the present inquiry by some curious facts relating to the blood of 

 insects, which attracted his notice while engaged on the last paper 

 he presented to the Royal Society, on the reproduction of lost parts 

 in insects and myriapoda. Some of these facts he is desirous of 

 making known at once to the Society, preparatory to his offering 

 them more extended researches on the blood of the in vertebrata, and 

 its comparison with that of the higher animals. 



The chief purpose of the author in the present paper, is to show 

 the analogy w^hich exists between the different corpuscles in the 

 blood of insects and of the vertebrata, to trace the changes which 

 the former undergo as compared with those of the latter, and to 

 show that in development and function they are analogous to secre- 

 ting cells. 



In pursuance of this object, he premises a brief notice of what 

 little was already known respecting the corpuscle in the articulata, 

 and of the different descriptions given of it by Cams, Spence, Wag- 

 ner, Bowerbank, Edwards, Baly and some later observers, all of 

 whom have described it differently, one only, jNIr. Bowerbank, ha- 

 ving correctly indicated its form. 



He then proceeds to state, that while engaged on other observa- 

 tions in June last, he found that the oat-shaped corpuscles, which are 

 so abundant in the caterpillar state of the insect, almost entirely dis- 

 appear before the insect has arrived at the perfect, or butterfly state, 

 in which, a few days after the insect is fully developed, scarcely a 

 single oat-shaped corpuscle is to be found ; but in the place of these, 

 there are numerous very minute rounded bodies, spherules, and also 

 many flattened, obtusely oval or barrel-shaped, double concave discs. 

 Both these forms of corpuscle have molecular movements, which are 

 most energetic in the spherules. 



He next makes some general observations on the composition of the 

 Ijlood of the invertebrata, and calls in question the accuracy of Pro- 

 fessor Wagner's view in regarding the blood of these animals as ana- 

 logous only to the chyle of the vertebrata, at the same time stating 

 his belief that it is not only analogous to true blood, but that it un- 

 dergoes a continued succession of changes through the agency of 

 the corpuscles. These minute bodies first derive nourishment and 



