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found necessary, and report thereon fromtime to time to the council, Drs. Websterand M. Hall, and Messrs. Davidson and H.Smith.The sum of 5l. (from the Benevolent Fund)

was unanimously voted to a distressed me-dical man, the case being considered to comewithin the objects of the charity.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OFLONDON.

Tuesday, July 26, 1842.

A PAPER was read, entitled " Observa-tions on the Seminal Tubes and Semen ofMammalia and Birds," by George Gulliver,Esq., F.R.S.Size of the Seminal Tubes, with the Nature

of their Contents at different Periods.This is an interesting subject, because it is

so much connected with the habits and eco-nomy of animals. The author, after alludingto the valuable labours of Professor R.

Wagner, gives an extensive series of mea-surements of the seminal tubes, which it ap-pears increase in size during the growth ofthe animal, and even before birth. Thesudden enlargement of the tubes in mamma-lia, when they become capable of reproduc-tion, and of the tubes of birds at the pairingseason, was shown by a table, in which wasalso contained a notice of the state of thetestes, and of the contents of the seminaltubes at the dilferent specified periods. In

birds, when these tubes become turgid, theyare also thinned, their walls being so muchattenuated and distended that they are almostready to burst with semen, contrary to Pro-fessor Wagner’s observation, that they ex-pand and become thick.

illolecitles of the Semen.These much resemble " the minute oil-

like spherules" depicted by the author (inhis Appendix to Gerber’s Anatomy, p. 103,)as constituting the bulk of the particles foundin the juice of the supra-renal bodies. Themost common diameter of the seminal mole-cules is 1-20,OOOth of an inch, and theyvary from 1-35,OOOth to 1-8000th. The au-thor is of opinion that these molecules areconnected with the perfecting of the semen,since he finds that they are very abundant inthe seminal fluid of birds and reptiles, justbefore the testicles become ripe, and whollydisappear or become scanty as soon as thespermatozoa are most completely formed.The author remarks incidentally, in refer-ence to a former notice in the Atlas to Gerber’s Anatomy," p. 59, on the diflicultyof determining the exact shape of particlesso extremely minute, that many which hehas formerly described as spherules may, in :reality, be discs, in conformity to some of theelaborate researches of Dr. Martin Barry.

Pigment of the Testes.In certain birds the testicles are yellow or

black. A particular examination of theblack pigment, mentioned by the author, inthe seminal tubes, or their coats, of thestarling, disclosed very distinct pigment ra..mifications.

Spermatozoa of the Genus Cervus.The author exhibited drawings of the

spermatozoa of the wapiti, red deer, and fal-low deer, noticing that he had found thespermatozoa in the testes of the latter animalat other periods than during the rut; andthese drawings were exhibited in referenceto the extraordinary statements in Sir E.Home’s " Comparative Anatomy," vol. v.,which have been well commented on by Dr.Davy, in his " Researches," vol. i., p. 338.

, Chemical Characters of the S‘permatozoa.The spermatozoa of mammalia are but

little, or not at all, affected by nitric, muria-tic, acetic, oxalic, tartaric, and citric acids ;by earthy, alkaline, and metallic salts; orby caustic alkalies. But the spiral sperma-tozoa of birds are very susceptible of theaction of the acetic and other vegetableacids; although the cylindrical spermatozoaof birds, as of the common swift, are nearlyallied in chemical characters to the sperma-tozoa of mammalia.When the seminal fluid contains an abun-

dance of corpuscles, it is quickly made ropyby alkalies and by many saline solutions; aneffect which is produced by these reagentson other animal fluids containing great num-bers of fresh primary or isolated cells, asmore particularly noticed in the Appendix to" Gerber’s Anatomy," pp. 91, 96, and 97. Insome recent experiments, the lymphglobuleswere only a little misshapen, after havingbeen kept many days in solutions of muriateof ammonia and other salts.

In the abstract of Mr. Gulliver’s paperon the Muscular Fibre (see LANCET, July 16,1842,) it should have been mentioned thatthe transverse striæ are observable on thefibres of the heart of some of the largerspecies of the lower vertebrate animals.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF PARIS.

TREATMENT OF TUMOURS.

THE Paris " Gazette des Hopitaux" ofthe 26th ult., has given insertion to the fol-lowing article, for which we have been re-quested to find a place in this Journal :-" At a meeting of the Royal Institute of

France held on the 9th of May last, and at ameeting of the Royal Academy of Medicineon the 10th of May, Drs. Conquoin and Mil-lardet, his associate, deposited a sealedparcel, to mark the date of an important mo-dification which they have made in their