1880.] Prof. Gamgee. A Note on Protagon. 



Ill 



The offspring (soboles) are derived from Norwegian statistics of 

 the number of children born to married and unmarried women of the 

 several ages, such facts for England not being available. 



As the Life Table represents a population, continuing the same in 

 constitution from year to year, the columns sy, s'y, and s"y, show the 

 annual number of children born to women of the several ages and 

 classes ; and the total births of live-born children in a year are 



I, 450,910, of which 55,381 are of illegitimate children. 



By means of simple formulas, the number of children born in or 

 out of wedlock, to any given number of women at a specified age, can 

 be deduced. 1,000 wives aged 20 bear 401 children, while 1,000 

 unmarried women of this age bear 11 children ; at age 30, 1,000 

 women of each class bear 337 and 29 children; at age 40, 210 and 10 

 children respectively are born of married and unmarried women. 



II. " A Note on Protagon." By Arthur Gamgee, M.D., F.R.S., 



Brackenbmy Professor of Physiology in Owens College, 

 Manchester. Received January 19, 1880. 



In 1879, in conjunction with Dr. Ernst Blank enhorn, I communi- 

 cated to the Royal Society a paper entitled " On the Existence of 

 Liebreich's Protagon in the Brain." * 



In that paper we sought to establish the existence of the body 

 which had been described by Dr. Liebreich, but which had by several 

 writers been considered to be a mixture of lecithin and cerebrin. We 

 gave many analyses of several samples of protagon, and pointed out 

 the constancy in the composition of the body when subjected to re- 

 peated crystallization from alcohol. I have since the date of the 

 a,bove paper, in conjunction with Herr Adolf Spiegel and Mr. Leopold 

 Larmuth, continued my examination of protagon, and of certain 

 bodies which accompany it. Our researches, which are not yet in a 

 sufficiently advanced state for publication, have in the fullest degree 

 confirmed the conclusions arrived at by the research of which the 

 results have already been submitted to the Society. 



The object of the present communication is to notice certain of the 

 statements which have lately been published by J. L. W. Thudichum, 

 M.D.,t to the effect that protagon is an impure body consisting of a 

 mixture of many organic substances, and containing in particular 

 considerable quantities of potassium. 



" These inquiries," says Dr. Thudichum, referring to his own re- 



* " Proc. Roy. Soc," vol. xxix, p. 151. 



f " Note and Experiments on the Alleged Existence in the Brain of a Body 

 termed 'Protagon'." "Annals of Chemical Medicine." By J. L. W. Thudichum, 

 M.D. London, 1879. Page 254. 



