Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften: Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe. Band XXV.-THE

ACADEMY.

Archiv für Kunde Oesterreichischer Geschichts-Quellen. Band XXXV. Heft 1, and Band XXXVI, Heft 1.

Register zu den Bänden I-XXXIII. des Archivs, and zu den Bänden I-IX. Notizenblattes :-THE ACADEMY.

Fontes Rerum Austriacarum. Band VII. Abtheilung I.-THE ACADEMY.

Register zu den Bänden I-XIV. der Denkschriften der Philosophisch-Historischen Classe der K. A. der W, Band I-THE ACADEMY. Chárûpát, Part I. of Akhaya Coomar, translated into Hindustani ?— THE TRANSLATORS.

Exchanges.

London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Vol. XXXII. No. 218.

The Athenæum for November 1866.

Purchases.

Dictionnaire Turc-Arabe-Persan by Dr. J. T. Zenker, Heft 10. Deutsches Wörterbuch by J. and W. Grimm, Part IV. Fasc. 11 and Part V. Fas. I.

Comptes Rendus de L'Académie des Sciences, Nos. 22 and 23, 1866. Journal des Savants, November 1866.

Revue et Magasin de Zoologie, No. 11 of 1866.

Revue des Deux Mondes, 1st December, 1866.

The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, No. 108, Vol. XVIII. Reeve's Conchologia, parts 260 and 261 (Tellina and Unio).

The American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. XLII. No. 126.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL,

FOR MARCH, 1867.

The Monthly General Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal was held on Wednesday the 6th of March, 1867 at 9 P. M.

Dr. J. Fayrer, President, in the chair.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed.

The following presentation was announced.

From the Editor, the "Pandit," a Monthly Journal of the Benares College, devoted to Sanscrit literature, No. 10.

The Council reported that they had elected Baboo Debendra Mullick a member of their body, in place of Dr. D. Boyes Smith, who had resigned.

The following gentlemen, proposed as ordinary members at the last meeting, were balloted for and elected.

The Hon'ble W. Markby.

Baboo Peary Mohun Mookerjee, M. A.

Captain H. W. King.

F. Hill, Esq.,

Baboo Jogindra Mullick.

W. G. Willson, Esq., B. A.

G. E. Knox, Esq., B. C. S.

Captain S. G. Montgomery, whose withdrawal was announced in July 1865, (owing to a mistake of his Agent,) was reinstated in the list of Members.

The following gentlemen were named as candidates for ballot at the next meeting.

Lieutenant-Colonel B. Ford, Superintendent of Port Blair; proposed by Mr. H. F. Blanford, seconded by Mr. Grote.

Major G. Mainwaring; proposed by Mr. Grote, seconded by Mr. Blanford.

Dr. Mohindra Lal Sircar; proposed by Baboo Rajendra Lala Mitra, seconded by Mr. Blanford.

The Hon'ble Nawab Sir Sherif-ul omrah Bahadoor, K. C. S. I. Member of the Legislative Council of Madras; proposed by Moulavi Abdool Luteef Khan Bahadoor, seconded by Dr. Fayrer.

The receipt of the following communications was announced1. From D. Waldie, Esq., Experimental Investigations connected with the water supply to Calcutta, Part III.

2. From Dr. C. Macnamara, through Dr. Fayrer, on the intimate structure of muscular fibre.

3. From W. Scott, Esq., On the reproductive Functional Relations of several species and Varieties of Verbascums,

4. From Baboo Gopee Nath Sen, Abstract of the Hourly Meteorological Observations made at the Surveyor General's Office in November, 1866.

At the request of the President, Dr. Macnamara read his paper " On the intimate structure of muscular fibre," of which the following is an abstract.

"The muscular system, whether voluntary or involuntary, is composed of an homogeneous substance, the characteristic features of which are, that it contracts in obedience to the nervous force, direct, or reflex. The elements of the contractile tissue, under all circumstauces, are arranged so as best to fulfil the mechanical purposes for which it is intended.

"In voluntary muscles there are no such elements as have been described as sarcous particles, but the contractile tissue consists of bundles of contractile fibres, each fibre being composed of two longitudinal bands running continuously from one end of the muscle to the other end, and connected throughout their length by spiral transverse bands, the whole being encased in a sheath of homogeneous tissue. A voluntary muscle therefore consists of a matrix of fibrous tissue, the interstices of which are filled up with contractile fibres such as I have just described; the larger vessels and veins ramifying in the fibrous matrix, but giving off numerous branches which are brought into immediate contact with the contractile tissue.

"It is evident that bands of elastic tissue could not perform the functions required of a muscle: the increase in breadth of the muscles

of a limb in contracting would, under these circumstances, exercise an injurious amount of pressure on the nerves and vessels of surrounding parts. All such anomalies are obviated by the arrangement I have now described; for in contracting, the longitudinal bands must shorten on themselves, drawing the transverse bands into closer approximation, and these at the same time uncoil: each fibre therefore increases in breadth exactly to the same amount which it loses in length, the changes, as in a muscle, being accurately proportioned to one another. It is quite possible that as the longitudinal bands are attached to fixed points at either extremity, the tension or relaxation of the transverse bands would be sufficient of themselves, by acting on the longitudinal bands, to cause contraction or relaxation of the muscle; and I am disposed to favour this idea, because we can thus easily conceive the means by which the remarkably rapid action which muscles are capable of effecting is accomplished; being kept in a state of perpetual tension depending on the action of the spiral bands.

"If this be the minute anatomy of muscle, it displays a source from whence animal heat may be derived. Much of Liebig's theory of the combustion of the hydro-carbons being the chief if not only source of animal heat, is falling to the ground; but in muscle or bone, there is evidence of the existence of forces as capable of engendering heat as combustion, viz. friction, compression, tension and expansion, all necessarily giving rise to molecular motion, and an equivalent amount of heat, quite capable of keeping up the temperature of the blood to a healthy standard.

"It appears also that we may equally well explain the presence of electricity in a muscle, by the play of the forces above enumerated: they must, in fact, when set in motion, induce electrical phenomena, and that independently of the nervous system."

A discussion ensued on the subject of the above paper; after which, on the proposition of the Secretary, the special thanks of the meeting were unanimously voted to Dr. Macnamara for the important communication just read to the meeting.

The following are the additions made to the Library since the meeting held in February last.