550 Lymphatics and their Origin in Muscular Tissues, [Feb. 15, 



film of conducting liquid by a discharge between the electrodes of a 

 circuit. The mode of effecting this was to make one electrode terminate 

 in a platinum plate fixed in a horizontal position, and supplied with a 

 uniform film of dilute sulphuric acid ; the other in a platinum point, the 

 distance of which from the plate is capable of delicate adjustment by 

 means of a screw. Electromotive force required for this break is not 

 less than that of 5 cells of Grrove. 



As soon as the current passes, the fluid between the plate and point 

 will be decomposed and electrical continuity broken. This done, the 

 fluid flows back again, and continuity is restored. By a proper adjust- 

 ment of the supply of fluid and of the distance of the electrodes (the 

 latter varying from '05 inch to '001 inch), the number of disruptions may 

 be made to attain 1000 per second. 



The currents delivered by this form of break are exceedingly uniform, 

 and the effects produced are quite equal in delicacy to those produced by 

 the electromagnetic or by the wheel break. 



The elements used in the battery to which allusion was made in the 

 early part of this paper are zinc and carbon. The zinc is immersed in 

 dilute sulphuric acid in the proportions of 1 volume of acid to 7 of 

 water ; and the carbon in a saturated solution of bichromate of potash 

 with 1 volume of sulphuric acid to 7 of the solution. The carbon and 

 bichromate solution are held in a porous cell. 



The absence of nitric acid permits this battery to be used in a room ; 

 while the fact that the zinc is attacked only when the circuit is complete, 

 renders it unnecessary to lift the plates out of the fluid when not in use, 

 as in the bichromate battery. The only limit to the time during which 

 this battery may be left untouched, appears to be the period when the 

 bichromate salt finds its way into the outer ceU, so as to attack the zinc 

 independently of electrical action. But this does not take place to an 

 extent materially to affect the action for some months. 



II. ^' Lymphatics and their Origin in Muscular Tissues. By 

 George Hoggan, M.B., and Frances Elizabeth Hoggan^ 

 M.D. Communicated by Dr. Billing, F.B.S. Received 

 January 18, 1877. 



The authors announce that they have discovered the long-looked-for 

 lymphatics of striated muscle, and describe them as radicles, valveless 

 reservoirs, and valved efferent vessels. While describing their structure 

 and relations, they point out that the reservoirs are found on one plane 

 or side of a muscle ; the valved efferents are found on the other side, as, 

 for example, in the case of the diaphragm, transversalis abdominis, and 

 triangularis sterni muscles. In connexion with this, they have discovered 



