608 



I'Organisation de I'lris," for evidence of the muscularity of the iris 

 which he obtained by applying galvanism to the human eye imme- 

 diately after decapitation ; and he concludes with the narrative of 

 the case of a woman in whose iris there had been formed, by an 

 accidental wound with the point of a knife, a triangular aperture 

 below the pupil. This aperture became dilated when the pupil was 

 contracted, and vice versa ; thus furnishing a proof that its move- 

 ments were effected by muscular action. 



April 2, 184.6. 



The MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON, President, in the Chair. 

 Major Cautley was elected a Fellow of the Society. 



Contributions to the Chemistry of the Urine. Part II. " On the 

 Variations in the Alkaline and Earthy Phosphates in Disease." By 

 Henry Bence Jones, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physi- 

 cians. Communicated by Thomas Graham, Esq., F.R.S., &c. 



The analyses, of which the results are given in a series of tables, 

 were made by the author, chiefly from the urine of patients labour- 

 ing under different diseases in St. George's Hospital, and therefore 

 nearly under the same circumstances as far as exercise was con- 

 cerned. He found that the variations in the earthy phosphates were 

 in general independent of the nature of the disease. In fractures of 

 the spine and paraplegia, however, the total amount of these salts 

 was slightly above the healthy standard during the early period, 

 and when inflammatory action might be considered as prevailing ; 

 but when this action had subsided, and the affection had become 

 chronic, the total quantity of phosphatic salts was less than natural. 

 In chronic diseases of the brain, and in chronic and even in acute 

 diseases of the membranes, no increase of these salts was observed. 

 In fractures of the bones of the skull, when inflammation of the 

 brain supervened, there wsls a slight increase of the total amount of 

 phosphates ; but no such increase occurred when the head was not 

 affected, even although acute inflammation of other organs existed. 

 In acute inflammation of the brain there was an excessive secretion 

 of phosphates, which returned to the natural quantity as soon as 

 the inflammation passed into the chronic state. In some functional 

 diseases of the brain, attended with delirium, the secretion of the 

 salts was excessive ; but the excess ceased with the disappearance 

 of that symptom. In other functional diseases, as in fevers, no ex- 

 cess was ol3servable. In delirium tremens, when food could be 

 taken, there was neither excess nor deficiency; but in the most 

 violent cases, where no food could be taken, the quantity of the 

 phosphates M'as diminished in a most remarkable degree.; In the 

 general paralysis of the insane, no increase of phosphates was ob- 

 served. One case of acute paroxysm of mania showed a small in- 



