265 



which, by sympathy, communicates its influence to the vital organs. 

 The next form of death is that which is induced by such causes as 

 are applied, in a sufficient degree, to act as direct sedatives to the or- 

 gans of the sensitive system, that is, to impair their excitability with- 

 out previous excitement. The third set of causes of death compre- 

 hends those which operate by depriving some of the vital organs of 

 those stimulants on which their functions depend ; and the last con- 

 sists of such as directly debilitate those organs themselves. Thus, 

 according to the author, these adventitious causes act either directly 

 by destroying the power of the brain and spinal cord, or by affecting 

 the vital parts of those organs, so as, through them, to destroy the 

 circulation or the assimilatory functions. The destruction of the cir- 

 culation appears, in all cases, to be the cause of instantaneous death, 

 and always to be effected through impressions made on the vital parts 

 of the brain and spinal cord, except where the injurious agent operates 

 directly on the organs of circulation themselves. 



The author considers the vital functions, together with the muscu- 

 lar and nervous powers, which carry them on, as the results of inani- 

 mate agents acting on living parts, or living parts on them ; and hence 

 he explains the analogy which exists between all these functions and 

 the operations of inanimate nature ; while, with regard to the sensorial 

 functions alone, as they are the results of vital parts acting on each 

 other, so no analogy can be perceived between them and those ope- 

 rations. 



In the course of the paper the author frequently reverts to the ar- 

 gument, that, to the sentient being, death being simply the loss of 

 sensibility, the last act of dying can in no case be an act of suffering : 

 and in the majority of instances of the long continuance of disease, 

 our tastes, and our relish for life itself, being gradually impaired, 

 death is met, not only with composure, but even with satisfaction. 



A paper was then read, entitled, " On the Tides." By John William 

 Lubbock, Esq., V.P. and Treasurer of the Royal Society. 



Various tables relating to the tides are communicated in this paper, 

 calculated, according to the instructions of the author, by Mr. Dessiou. 

 In the tables given by the author in former papers, already published in 

 the PhilosophicalTransactions, and having reference to the corrections 

 due to the influence of the parallax and declination of the moon, Mr. 

 Dessiou employed only observations of the tides made between con- 

 junction and opposition 3 but in those now given, similar corrections 

 have been obtained from observations made between opposition and 

 conjunction. 



The author enters into an inquiry into the correction due to the 

 calendar month, which is mixed up with that due to the moon's declina- 

 tion, and shows that the correction for the moon's parallax, as well as 

 declination, deduced from the theory of Bernoulli, are quite discordant 

 with the results of Mr. Dessiou's calculations, founded on actual ob- 

 servation. 



The author agrees with Mr. Whewell in the remark, that the theory 

 of the tides is now in the same state as that which the theory of the 



