of Edinburgh , Session 1866-67. 
63 
Monday , 1th January 1867. 
The Hon. Lord NEAVES, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
Dr Hughes Bennett, at the request of the Council, performed 
several experiments with a view of showing how, in modern times, 
physiology was successfully investigated by means of newly in- 
vented instruments. He noticed especially the subject of animal 
electricity, stating, that a specimen of the Melayterurus beninensis 
which had been forwarded to him from Old Calabar in Africa, had 
been preserved for eighteen months in one of the hot-houses of the 
Botanic Garden of this city. Unfortunately, it died only that 
afternoon. He regretted that the arrangements he had made for 
showing the electrical currents in muscles and nerves had failed, in 
consequence of the injury which had been inflicted on two of the 
delicate galvanometers, recently invented by Sir W. Thomson, in 
their transit from the University to the Society’s Rooms. He pro- 
ceeded, however, to show the influence of continued and interrupted 
streams of electricity, on muscles and nerves. The law of contrac- 
tion in muscles, as determined by Pfluger, was clearly demonstrated, 
and the variations in the influence of the continued stream, accord- 
ing to its amount and direction, were fully exhibited. The phe- 
nomena of electrotonus and the excitability of nerves were next 
illustrated by experiments. He then explained and performed the 
experiment of Helmholz, demonstrating how the time which the 
nervous influence occupied in traversing a given distance of nerve 
might be determined with exactitude, and noticed the more recent 
experiments of Schelzke, and De Jaeger, as to the rapidity with 
which volition and sensation were produced. Lastly, he alluded 
to the action of recently invented Sphygmographs, Cardiographs, 
and the Kymographion, dwelling more particularly on the Sphyg- 
mosphone. This instrument enabled the time and rapidity of the 
pulse and movements of the heart to be accurately determined by 
the ear, in consequence of an arrangement which caused each 
pulsation to break a continued electrical circuit, that in its turn 
communicated a movement to levers which struck bells. The two 
