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wound, absorption cannot take place suddenly. Some time is re- 
quired before enough can enter the blood. When death takes place 
instantly, the cause must be the mechanical violence inflicted by the 
arrow. The author exhibited various poison-arrows used in different 
parts of the world, which were adequate to occasion most deadly 
wounds if they struck the trunk of the body over an important 
organ ; and he also showed that even the little slender wooden 
poison-darts, used in some parts of the world for destroying birds 
and small animals, by being shot from a blowing-tube, may be easily 
projected with a force amply sufficient to kill a small bird or animal 
by the violence inflicted, apart from the more tardy deleterious 
influence exerted by the poison. 
3. On the Connection between Temperature and Electrical 
Resistance in the simple Metals. By Balfour Stewart, Esq. 
About a fortnight since I mentioned to Professor Forbes that the 
resistances of the simple metals to the passage of electricity seemed 
to be very nearly in proportion to their absolute temperature, this 
relation being especially manifest for those values of the resistances 
determined by M. Arndtsen. 
Professor Forbes informed me that this coincidence had already 
been observed by Professor Clausius, and that an abstract of his 
paper was given in the Philosophical Magazine for November last. 
On referring to Professor Clausius’s original paper, it would seem 
that the coincidence had suggested itself to him as a remarkable 
similarity occurring between the rate of increase (due to tem- 
perature) of the electrical resistance of those metals, and that of 
the volume of a gas under constant pressure. It would seem that 
the fact was unconnected in his mind with any theoretical con- 
siderations. 
As, however, I was led to look for and remark the coincidence 
by theoretical considerations, perhaps this Society will permit me 
to lay before them a short statement of my views. 
The passage of electricity along a wire is generally viewed in the 
following light: — The free electricity of one particle decomposes the 
electricity of the particle next it ; the two electricities then combine 
by sparking across the interval ; and the same thing is renewed over 
