504 



Dr. E. J. Mills on Electrostriction. [Dec. 13, 



round the parenchyma of that organ, yet there is to be seen in many 

 preparations a curious similarity in that respect also. 



The present communication does not go beyond a statement of points 

 of resemblance. The corpus luteum, which enters so largely into the 

 comparison, is itself as much an unsolved problem as the suprarenal. It 

 may be said, however, to afford better opportunities of study ; and if the 

 resemblance above outlined be a resemblance in essentials, a sound theory 

 of the suprarenal as a whole will probably be found to depend upon a 

 sound theory of the corpus luteum. 



December 13 3 1877. 

 Sir JOSEPH HOOKER, K.C.S.L, President, in the Chair. 



The Presents received were laid on the table, and thanks ordered for 

 them. 



Among the Presents was a transparent positive photograph of the sun 

 on glass, taken at Meudon by M. Janssen, Eor. Mem. R.S., and pre- 

 sented by him to the Society. 



Pursuant to notice given at the last Meeting, Marcellin Berthelot, 

 Joseph Decaisne, Emil Du Bois-Beymond, Adolph Wilhelm Hermann 

 Kolbe, Eudolph Leuckart, Simon Newcomb, and Pafnutij Tschebytschew 

 were balloted for and elected Eoreign Members of the Society. 



The following Papers were read : — 



I. « On Electrostriction." By Edmund J. Mills, D.Sc, F.R.S., 

 " Young " Professor of Technical Chemistry in Anderson's 

 College, Glasgow. Received August 7, 1877. 



If the bulb of an ordinary thermometer be coated chemically with 

 silver, and then electrically with a metallic deposit, the mercury will 

 traverse some portion of the scale, and finally take up a definite posi- 

 tion, independently of temperature. To this phenomenon I have given 

 the name electrostriction. Of the metals hitherto worked with, copper, 

 silver, iron, and nickel constrict the bulb ; zinc and cadmium distend it. 



The general conditions under which the experiments were made were 

 as follow : — A thermometer coated with silver by immersion in a solution 

 of ammoniacal argentic tartrate was placed vertically near a bare ther- 

 mometer at one side of a depositing cell ; the anode stood at a distance 

 of 11 centimetres. The bulbs of the thermometers were about their own 

 depth below the surface of the electrolyte ; the covered one was turned 

 half round at every comparison. The source of electricity was a pint 



