Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/460

Rh

Augustin F. B. Creuze, Esq., and Captain Samuel F. Widdrington, R.N., were balloted for and duly elected Fellows of the Society.

A paper was in part read, entitled " On the Nerves :" by James Stark, M.D., F.R.S.E. Communicated by James F. W. Johnston, Esq., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Durham.

The Society then adjourned over the Christmas recess, to meet again on the 12th of January next.

1. The reading of a paper, entitled " On the Nerves," by James Stark, M.D., was resumed and concluded.

The author gives the results of his examinations, both microscopical and chemical, of the structure and composition of the nerves; and concludes that they consist, in their whole extent, of a congeries of membranous tubes, cylindrical in their form, placed parallel to one another, and united into fasciculi of various sizes ; but that neither these fasciculi nor the individual tubes are enveloped by any fila- mentous tissue ; that these tubular membranes are composed of extremely minute filaments, placed in a strictly longitudinal direc- tion, in exact parallelism with each other, and consisting of granules of the same kind as those ^vhich form the basis of all the solid structures of the body ; and that the matter which fills the tubes is of an oily nature, differing in no essential respect from butter, or soft fat ; and remaining of a fluid consistence during the life of the animal, or while it retains its natural temperature, but becoming granular or solid when the animal dies, or its temperature is much reduced. As oily substances are well known to be non-conductors of electricity, and as the nerves have been shown by the experiments of Bischoff" to be among the worst possible conductors of this agent, the author contends that the nervous agency can be neither elec- tricity, nor galvanism, nor any property related to those powers; and conceives that the phenomena are best explained on the hypo- thesis of undulations or vibrations propagated along the course of the tubes which compose the nerves, by the medium of the oily globules they contain. He traces the operation of the various causes which produce sensation, in giving rise to these undulations ; and extends the same explanation to the phenomena of voluntary motion, as consisting in undulations, commencing in the brain, as determined by the will, and propagated to the muscles. He corro- borates his views by ascribing the effects of cold in diminishing or