166 



The author proceeds to trace the connexions of these cavities with 

 the lymphatic vessels in the neighbourhood, and with one another : 

 and it appears from his researches, that the lymph of the hinder ex- 

 tremities, as well as that of the posterior part of the abdomen, is con- 

 veyed by means of these hearts into the trunk of the crural veins. 

 He also gives a description of the posterior part of the venous system 

 of the frog, noticing particularly the large transverse anastomosis be- 

 tween the sciatic and the crural veins, which joins the anterior median 

 vein of the abdomen, and conducts the blood partly into the vena 

 portse, and partly into the renal veins. 



Professor Muller has likewise discovered two anterior lymphatic 

 hearts in the frog ; a discovery to which he was led by some obser- 

 vations of Dr. Marshall Hall, who stated that he had seen in that 

 animal an artery pulsate after the removal of the heart. These ante- 

 rior lymphatic hearts lie on each side upon the great transverse pro- 

 cess of the third vertebra, immediately under the posterior end of the 

 scapula, and they are nearly as large as the posterior hearts. They 

 receive the lymph of the anterior parts of the body, and probably also 

 that of the intestinal canal, in order to transmit it into contiguous 

 veins, which pour their contents into the jugular vein. The author 

 has discovered similar organs in the toad, the salamander, and the 

 green lizard ; and is of opinion that they exist in all the amphibia. 



The following announcement was made from the Chair : — 



" His Royal Highness the President has received from Professor 

 Gauss the abstract of a paper read by him at the meeting of the Royal 

 Society at Gottingen, on the 15th of December last, entitled ' Inten- 

 sitas vis magneticce terrestris ad men.suram absolutam revocata.' Mr. 

 Gauss's views possessing considerable interest, His Royal Highness 

 is desirous that they should be made known to the Fellows of the 

 Royal Society ; but as the original paper will not be printed for many 

 months, and the abstract which appeared in the Gottingisehe gelehrte 

 Anzeigen is in a language not generally understood in this coun- 

 try, His Royal Highness has requested your Foreign Secretary to 

 translate it ; and I am commanded to desire your Secretary to read 

 the same to the present meeting. 



" In deviating thus far from the usual routine of the. business of 

 the Royal Society, His Royal Highness is actuated by a wish to pro- 

 mote the reciprocal and early communication of new and important 

 discoveries and views in science, between our own and the other So- 

 cieties of Europe, devoted, like this, to ' the improvement of natural 

 knowledge.' 



" Communications of this nature, however, cannot of course be 

 admitted into your Transactions j but the publication, from time to 

 time, of your Proceedings, affords a happy means of giving them 

 general circulation ; and thus the rapid propagation of much valuable 

 information will be effected, which otherwise, if not absolutely lost to 

 us, would, at least, long remain unknown to the British scientific 

 public." 



