Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/218

Rh pogastric nerves on both sides enter, and to which they firmly ad- here. From the upper part of this fibrous substance there passes up, over the whole anterior surface of the uterus, a thin band of firm white fasciculated fibres, prolongations of which extend to the round ligaments, — into which, and into the posterior band, they are continued by numerous filaments, like those of nerves. From the posterior surface of this great band, numerous branches, also appa- rently nervous, can be traced to a considerable depth through the muscular coat of the uterus.

The author concludes his paper with the following remark, and a short historical account of the progress of discovery on the subject of the nerves of the uterus : —

"From the form, colour and general appearance of these fasciculated bands, and the resemblance they bear to ganglionic plexuses of nen^es, and from their branches actually coalescing with the hypogastric and spermatic nerves, I was induced to conclude, on first discovering them, that they were nervous plexuses, and constituted the special nervous system of the uteinis. The recent examination, however, of the gravid uterus of some of the lower animals, in which I have found a structure similar to those bands in large quantity under the peri- toneum, has left me in considerable doubt as to the nature of these bands, and until further investigations have been made, I shall not venture to pronounce a positive opinion respecting them."

The description of the nerves of the uterus contained in Professor Tiedemann's splendid work, the author adds, is usually referred to by anatomical writers as the most accurate and complete which has ever been given. Professor Tiedemann has represented the sperma- tic nerves as being distributed chiefly to the ovarium ; and the hypo- gastric as invariably accompanying the trunk and branches of the uterine arteries, along the sides of the uterus, — dividing into smaller branches, and quickly disappearing in the muscular coat of the ute- rus. He has made no mention of the large nervous trunks on both sides of the uterus, which accompany the uterine veins ; nor has he noticed fasciculated transverse bands on the anterior and posterior surfaces of the uterus, connected with the hypogastric and spermatic nerves.

" Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope, in the year 18S8, with Bradley's Zenith Sector, for the verification of the amplitude of the Abbe de la Caille's Arc of the ]Meridian ; by order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty." By Thomas Alaclear, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., &:c. Communicated by Sir John Barrow. Bart., V.P.R.S., &c.

The author gives an account of the precautions taken in putting together the different parts of the zenith sector, which he received on the 9th of December, 1837, in erecting it in the central room of the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, and in afterwards transferring it to the southern station of La Caille, in Cape Town. He then proceeds to describe La Caille's observatory, and the par- ticular circumstances of its locality, with relation to the object in