444 



other six volumes are taken from original sketches made by myself, 

 with but very few exceptions, and then I name my authorities ; and if 

 I sometimes illustrate anew what has already been published, I know 

 that I thereby correct an error, and do good service to the cause of an- 

 tiquarian truth. G. Y. D. 



Resolved, — That the warm thanks of the Academy are due, and 

 are hereby returned to Mr. Du JNoyer for his very generous and valu- 

 able presentation. 



The President tinder his hand and seal nominated and appointed the 

 following Members of Council as Yice-Presidents of the Royal Irise 

 Academy : — 



The Yery Rev. Charles Graves, D. D. ; 

 The Rev. George Salmon, D. D. ; 

 W. K Sullivan, Esq., Ph.D.; 

 Sir William R. W. Wilde, M. D. 



MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1866. 



William K. Sullivan, Ph. D., Yice-President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Alexander Macalister, Demonstrator of Anatomy, Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons, Ireland, read the following paper : — 



Notes on Muscular Anomalies in Human Anatomy. 



The rapid advances which have been made of late years in the know- 

 ledge of comparative and embryological anatomy and their kindred 

 sciences have given a stimulus to our researches after muscular irregu- 

 larities in the human subject, as in these we frequently find the clue 

 to the explanation of the varying positions and modes of arrangement 

 of normal muscles, both in man and other animals. Although Huxley 

 and Wood in this country, and Henle, Theile, Kelch, Hyrtl, and Meckel 

 on the Continent, have written much on this subject, yet such is the 

 variability of the human frame, and of so frequent occurrence are novel 

 irregularities, that it often falls to the lot of other observers to examine 

 specimens which have not as yet been placed on record. Por the past 

 eight years, during which time I have been connected with the anato-* 

 mical room of the Royal College of Surgeons, I have preserved notes of 

 all the more important deviations from the normal types which I have 

 observed, and of these there are some which, to my knowledge, have 

 not been as yet made public. 



As it seems to be a law of nature that the complex types of organi- 

 zation are much more liable to irregularity than the simpler forms, so 

 we should expect to find the human structures more disposed to abnor- 

 mal modes of arrangement than the parts of other Yertebrates; and such, 

 indeed, seems to be the case. Whether these irregularities are connected 

 with corresponding varieties of vital individuality, it is usually impossi- 



