DESIDERATA^ ETC. 
XXXI 
Desiderata noticed in Professor Lindley's Report on Botany. 
1. An accurate account of the manner in which the w r oody 
part of plants is formed. 
2. An investigation of the comparative anatomy of flow r erless 
plants, with a view to discover in them the analogy and origin 
of their organic structure. 
3. The cause of the various colours of plants. 
4. The nature of the feecal excretions of cultivated plants, and 
of common weeds; the degree in which those excretions are 
poisonous to the plants that yield them, or to others; the most 
ready means of decomposing such excretions by manures or 
other means. 
MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
Resolutions of the Committee . 
1. That the effects of poisons on the animal oeconomy should 
be investigated and illustrated by graphic representations ; and 
that a sum not exceeding 25/. be appropriated for this object. 
Dr. Eoupell and Dr. Hodgkin were requested to undertake this 
investigation*. 
2. That an experimental investigation should be made of the 
sensibilities of the Nerves of the Brain ; and that a sum not ex¬ 
ceeding 2 51. should be appropriated to this object. Dr. Mar¬ 
shall Hall and Mr. S. D. Broughton were requested to undertake 
these experiments!. 
3. That two Committees be appointed, one to meet in Edin¬ 
burgh and the other in London, for the purpose of investigating 
the anatomical relations of the absorbent and nervous systems in 
the different classes of animals, to be illustrated by injected pre¬ 
parations and graphic representations, and that the sum of 25/. 
be placed at the disposal of each Committee for assisting the 
prosecution of these researches. 
4. That two Committees be appointed, one to meet in Edin¬ 
burgh and the other in Dublin, to investigate the motions and 
sounds of the heart, and that the sum of 50/. be placed at their 
disposal^ ; and that it be an instruction to these Committees to 
determine whether the muscular fibres of the columnae carnese 
contract at the same precise moment as the mass of muscular 
fibres of the ventricle; also, what is the precise mode in which 
* Reports , vol. iv. pp. 211 and 235. 4 Reports, vol. iii. p. 676. 
X Reports , vol. iv. p. 243. 
