598 Boyal Society : —Mr. Smee on the Structure of Bone, 
un Chronometre de O. H. Bestor ; pour la mesure des triangles de 
premier ordre je me servis d’un theodolite de dix pouces de diametre 
sortant des ateliers de Munich, pourvu de quatre verniers et don- 
nant 10". Les elevations du sol furent determinees par des obser- 
vations barometriques faites avec soin, souvent r^petees et deduites 
par le moyen d’observations correspondants ; elles furent calculees 
d’apres la methode d’Oltmanns et verifiees par cedes du Baron Zach. 
— V.P. 
‘‘ Report on the co-operation of the Russian and German ob- 
servers, in a system of simultaneous Magnetical Observations.” By 
the Rev. H. Lloyd, F.R.S., in a letter addressed to Sir John 
F. W. Herschel, Bart., V.P.R.S. Communicated by Sir John Her- 
schel. 
“ On Magnetical Observations in Germany, Norway, and Russia.” 
By Major Sabine, R.A., V.P.R.S., in a letter to Baron von Hum- 
boldt, For. Mem. R.S., dated Oct. 24th, 1839. 
These letters relate to communications which Professor Lloyd 
and Major Sabine have had, conformably to a resolution of the 
Council of the Royal Society, with the scientific authorities at Got- 
tingen, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, respecting the organization of a 
simultaneous system of magnetical observations. It appears, from 
these letters, that the system proposed by the Royal Society is 
viewed with general interest and approbation ; and nineteen stations 
are enumerated at which there is reason to expect that magnetical 
observatories, acting in concert, on that system, wilt be established. 
Jan. 23. — A paper was read, entitled “ On the structure of Nor- 
mal and Adventitious Bone.” By Alfred Smee, Esq., communi- 
cated by P. M. Roget, M.D. Sec. R.S. 
On examining, by means of a microscope, very thin sections of 
bone, prepared in a peculiar manner, the author observed a number 
of small, irregularly-shaped, oblong corpuscles, arranged in circular 
layers round the canals of Havers, and also rows of similar bodies 
distributed around both the external and the internal margins of the 
bone. Each corpuscle is connected by numerous filaments, passing 
in all directions, with the Haversian canals and the margins of the 
bone, and also with the adjacent corpuscles. He finds that the ca- 
nals of Havers are vascular tubes containing blood. The corpuscles 
themselves are hollow, and their cavities occasionally communicate 
with those of the canals ; their length is equal to about two or three 
diameters of the globules of the blood. They exist in cartilaginous 
as well as osseous structures, and are found in every instance of ad- 
ventitious bone, such as callus after fracture, morbid ossific growths 
either from bone or from other tissues ; and the author has also as- 
certained their presence in the bony and cartilaginous structures of 
inferior animals, such as birds and fishes. Measurements relating 
to these corpuscles, by Mr. Bowerbank, are subjoined, from which 
it appears that their diameters vary from about the 10,000th to the 
4000th, and their lengths from the 2300th to the 1400th part of an 
inch. 
“ An attempt to establish a new and general Notation, applicable 
to the doctrine of Life Contingencies.” By Peter Hardy, Esq., F.R.S, 
