1866.] Gen. Sabine — Results of Kevj Magnetic Observations. 249 



each other at more or less acute angles according to their depths, the 

 anterior fibres, as a whole, crossing the posterior or homologous fibres as 

 a whole. While, therefore, the fibres, in virtue of their twisted looped 

 arrangement, antagonize each other individually, the aggregation of the 

 fibres in any one region check, antagonize, and coordinate a similar ago;re- 

 gation of fibres at an opposite point ; the anterior fibres, e. g., acting on 

 the posterior, and the right lateral upon the left Literal. This arrange- 

 ment, which is productive of great strength, ensures that the external and 

 internal fibres shall act in unison or together, and fully explains the views 

 of the older anatomists, who described the bladder as consisting of fibres 

 crossing in every direction, and forming an intricate network. It likewise 

 accords with the more modern opinion, that the fibres of the bladder may 

 be divided into strata or layers. 



The fibres, when their points of attachment are taken into consideration, 

 can only contract spirally from above downwards, and from without in- 

 wards ; they in fact converge, or close spirally in the direction of the 

 cervix, which may be said to diverge or open in an opposite direction as 

 the contraction proceeds. As a result of this twisting movement, the urine, 

 like the blood, is projected spirally*. 



Finally, the fibres of the bladder, urethra, and prostate pursue at least 

 seven well-marked directions ; the fibres crossing with remarkable precision 

 at wider and wider angles, as the central portion of either is reached, as 

 in the left ventricle of the vertebrate heart f . In fact, the fibres of the 

 bladder and heart have a strictly analogous arrangement, and the author 

 is inclined to believe that functionally also they possess points of re- 

 semblance. Yery similar remarks may be made regarding the structure and 

 functions of the stomach and uterus. 



XI. ^' Results of the Magnetic Observations at the Kew Observatory. 

 — No. III. Lunar Diurnal Variation of the three Magnetic Ele- 

 ments.^^ By Lieut.-General Edward SabIx\e_, P.R.S. Re- 

 ceived June 21, 1866. 



(Abstract.) 



The subject of this paper is the lunar-diurnal variation of the magnetic 

 declination and of the horizontal and vertical components of the magnetic 

 force, derived from a seven years' series of photographic records obtained 

 at the Kew Observatory between January 1, 1858 and December 31, 1864. 



The discussion which it contains has for its objects — 1st, to exemphfy 

 the consistent and systematic character of the lunar-diurnal influence thus 

 derived ; and 2ndly, to serve both as a guide and as an encouragement to 

 the several estabhshments at home and abroad which have adopted, or are 



* Op. cit. p. 794. 



t " On the arrangement of the Muscular Fibres in the Ventricles of the Vertebrate 

 Heart," by the author, Phih Trans, part iii. 1864. p. 451. 



