932 



the serum of the blood was not milky : it did not contain a larger 

 quantity of fat than healthy blood does. 

 The general results are, — 



1. That the most important changes in the urine in this disease 

 take place independently of the influence of digestion. 



2. That the urine in one respect only resembles chyle, and that 

 is in containing, after digestion, a large quantity of fat in a very fine 

 state of division. The supposition that the disease consists in an 

 accumulation of fat in the blood, which is thrown out by the kidneys, 

 carrying with it albumen, fibrin, blood-globules and salts, is altogether 

 disproved, both by actual analyses of the blood, and by the frequent 

 occurrence of a jelly-like coagulum in the urine when no white fatty 

 matter can be seen to be present. 



3. The disease consists in some change in the kidney by which 

 fibrin, albumen, blood-globules and salts are allowed to pass out, 

 whenever the circulation through the kidney is increased; and if at 

 the same time fat is present in the blood, it escapes also into the 

 urine. That this change of structure is not visible to the naked eye 

 on post-mortem examination, Dr. Prout long since demonstrated ; 

 and in a case of this disease which was in St. George's Hospital, and 

 was examined at Plymouth, no disease of the kidney was observed. 

 From the total absence of fibrinous casts of the tubes from the urine, 

 it is not improbable that by the microscope a difference may be de- 

 tected in the structure of the mammary processes, rather than in 

 that of the cortical part of the kidneys. 



March 21, 1850. 



RICHARD OWEN, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The following letter from Mr. Addington to the Secretary was 

 read. 



Foreign Office, March 20th, 1850. 

 Sir,— -I am directed by Viscount Palmerston to send to you, for 

 the information of the President and Council of the Royal Society, 

 an extract of a letter which his Lordship has received from Mr. James 

 Richardson, stating that in the month of November last, a fall of 

 aerolites had taken place on the coast of Barbary attended with a 

 brilliant stream of light, which extended from Tunis to Tripoli, some 

 of the stones falling in the latter city. 



I am. Sir, 



Your most obedient, humble Servant, 



H. W. Addington. 



The Secretary to the Royal Society. 



" Extract of a letter from 3Ir. Richardson, dated off Jerhah^ 

 25th January 1850. 



" I will trouble your Lordship by the mention of the astronomic 



