406 



especially in bringing down the arm, when previously raised, as in 

 striking with the hammer, pickaxe, &c, where velocity is chiefly re- 

 quired, the weight of the instrument held in the hand sufficiently sup- 

 plying the diminution of force. On the contrary, the lever by which 

 the upper portion of the same muscle is enabled to act being, from 

 the more distant insertion of its tendon, of greater length, is calcu- 

 lated to procure force at the expense of velocity, and is therefore pe- 

 culiarly fitted for the performance of those actions by which the arm 

 is elevated and weights raised ; these being precisely the actions in 

 which such muscles are employed. Adverting, also, to the respective 

 obliquities in the direction of their action, the author traces the same 

 express correspondence between the mechanism employed and the 

 purpose contemplated. He pursues the same line of argument and 

 obtains the same results in extending the inquiry to the structure and 

 uses of those muscles, such as the coraco-brachialis, and the anterior 

 fibres of the deltoid, which cooperate with the upper division of the 

 pectoralis major; and the teres major and latissimus dorsi, which 

 combine their actions with that of the lower division of the pectoral 

 muscle. 



This diversified adaptation of parts, he observes, forms the chief 

 characteristic of the mechanism of Nature. Operating with unlimited 

 means, she yet works with scrupulous economy; in all her structures 

 no power is redundant, nor a single advantage lost : so that, how- 

 ever completely an arrangement may be subservient to one primary 

 purpose, we find, on renewed examination, an equally accurate ad- 

 justment to various secondary and no less important ends. 



The author then proceeds to inquire into the methods employed 

 for determining the absolute and relative strength of muscles ; and 

 proposes, for that purpose, the application of the constant and equable 

 stream of galvanism afforded by the new battery invented by Mr. 

 Daniell. 



10. " An Experimental Inquiry into what takes place during the 

 Vinous, the Acetous, and different Putrefactive Fermentations of 

 dissolved Vegetable Matter; and an Examination of some of the Pro- 

 ducts." By Robert Rigg, Esq. Communicated by P. M. Roget, M.D., 

 Sec. R.S. 



The author describes with great minuteness a long train of experi- 

 ments on the subjects announced in the title of the paper. His first 

 object of inquiry is into the nature of the changes which take place 

 during the vinous fermentation ; and the conclusion to which he 

 arrives is, that in the formation of the products resulting from this 

 process sugar is not the only vegetable principle which is decom- 

 posed, but that the changes consist in the combination of two equi- 

 valents of carbon, derived from the sugar of the malt, or other vege- 

 table matter, (= 12*24) with two equivalents of hydrogen from water 

 ( = 2') forming 14 24 parts of defiant gas : and in the combination 

 of one equivalent of the carbon from the sugar, &c. (= 6-12) with two 

 equivalents of oxygen from water, ( = 16'.) forming 22*12 parts of car- 

 bonic acid. He thinks that, on this change taking place, the olefiant 



