198 



January 23, 1840. 



Sir JOHN BARROW, Bart., V.P., in the Chair. 



John Fye Smith, D.D. was balloted for, and duly elected into the 

 Society. 



A paper was read, entitled On the structure of Normal and 

 Adventitious Bone." By Alfred Smee, Esq., communicated by P. 

 M. Roget, M.D. Sec. R.S. 



On examining, by means of a microscope, very thin sections of 

 bone, prepared in a peculiar manner, the author observed a number 

 of small, irregularly-shaped, oblong corpuscles, arranged in circular 

 layers round the canals of Havers, and also rows of similar bodies 

 distributed around both the external and the internal margins of the 

 bone. Each corpuscle is connected by numerous filaments, passing 

 in all directions with the Haversian canals and the margins of the 

 bone, and also with the adjacent corpuscles. He finds that the ca- 

 nals of Havers are vascular tubes containing blood. The corpuscles 

 themselves are hollow, and their cavities occasionally communicate 

 with those of the canals ; their length is equal to about two or three 

 diameters of the globules of the blood. They exist in cartilaginous 

 as well as osseous structures, and are found in every instance of ad- 

 ventitious bone, such as callus after fracture, morbid ossific growths 

 either from bone or from other tissues ; and the author has also as- 

 certained their presence in the bony and cartilaginous structures of 

 inferior animals, such as birds and fishes. Measurements relating 

 to these corpuscles, by Mr. Bowerbank, are subjoined, from which 

 it appears that their diameters vary from about the 10,000th to the 

 4000th, and their lengths from the 2300th to the 1400th part of an 

 inch. 



An attempt to establish a new and general Notation, applicable 

 to the doctrine of Life Contingencies." By Peter Hardy, Esq., F.R.S. 



After premising a short account of the labours of preceding wri- 

 ters, with reference to a system of notation in the mathematical 

 consideration of life contingencies, the author enters at length into 

 an exposition of the system of symbols which he has himself de- 

 vised, together with the applications which they admit of in a variety 

 of cases. 



January 30, 1840. 



JOHN WILLIAM LUBBOCK, Esq., V.P. and Treasurer, in the 



Chair. 



James Annesley, Esq., was balloted for, and duly elected into 

 the Society. 



A paper was read, entitled " Observations on Single Vision with 



