Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/351

Rh The author concludes with the following recapitulation : — 1. The nucleus of the corpuscle of the blood admits of being traced into the pus-globule. 2. The various structures arise out of corpuscles ha- ving the same appearance, form, and size as corpuscles of the blood. 3. The corpuscles having this appearance, and giving origin to structures, are propagated by division of their nuclei. 4. The cor- puscles of the blood, also, are propagated by division of their nuclei. 5. The minuteness of the young blood-corpuscles is sometimes extreme ; and they are to be found in parts usually considered as not being permeable by red blood.

In a postscript, the author adds, that blood found in the heart immediately after death by bleeding, presents incessant alterations in the position of its corpuscles. Among these, when a single corpus- cle is examined very attentively, it is seen to change its form ; and the author is disposed to think it is this change of form that produces the alterations in position. The changes in form are slight, compared with those previously described by him as observed in blood else- where, and are not seen without close attention. The motions re- semble those called molecular ; and in the minutest corpuscles, which are mere points, nothing besides molecular motion can be discerned. It may be a question, the author thinks, whether molecular motion differs in its nature from the motion of the larger corpuscles just referred to. The division of the blood-corpuscles into corpuscles of minuter size, though apparent in blood from either side of the heart, has seemed more general in that from the left side ; which, it is suggested, is perhaps deserving of notice in connexion with the sub- ject of respiration.

5. "A new Theory of Physics, with its application to important phenomena hitherto considered as ultimate facts." By Thomas Exley, Esq., A.M.

The theory of the author is founded on the two following pro- positions, namely, that

1. Every atom of matter consists of an immense sphere of force, varying inversely as the square of the distance from the centre ; this force being attractive at all distances, except in a small concentric sphere, in which it is repulsive.

2. Atoms differ from each other in their absolute forces, or in the extent of their spheres of repulsion, or in both these respects.

The author assumes that there are four classes of atoms, the tenacious, the electric, the ethereal, and the aromatic. The existence of the last-named class of atoms he infers from the phenomena of vegetation, the miasmata of marshes, the aroma of plants, various noxious effluvia, the disinfecting property of some bodies, and facts relating to animalcules, and their ova, &c. He regards the two pro- positions which constitute the great principles of his theory, as pre- senting, at once, a complete explication of the general attributes of matter and body, with the Newtonian laws of motion, not otherwise theoretically explicable.

After pursuing at some length his theoretical speculations, founded