zoophytes the vitellus never divided; it became minutely granular and opaque without segmentation. Still, some intermediate form might occur even within the egg. The male of this Lizzia might differ in form or development from the female, as was the case in the medusoids of Atractylis (Eudendrium) ramosa, and Campanularia dichotoma (Loveni). It was well known that although in some zoophytes the reproductive apparatus of the male and female was identical in shape, in others the difference was very remarkable.

II. Note on an Instantaneous Method of finding Microscopic Objects under High Powers. By T. STRETHILL WRIGHT, M.D.

The author stated, that when examining small living organisms under pressure, he had frequently much difficulty in placing them under the higher-powered objectives with sufficient rapidity. The animals often commenced breaking up before they could be found. By adopting the following method of finding objects, he could instantly, and without even looking through the body of the microscope, place in the centre of the field, and in focus, any object which could be barely detected by the naked eye.

The

The fine adjustment slide was marked by a small scratch on the brass-work, and it was afterwards not used. A speck of paper or other substance, sufficiently large to be just perceptible to the naked eye, was placed in water on a glass slide, covered with thin glass, placed in the centre of the field, and accurately focussed under the high-powered object-glass. coarse adjustment was then marked by a scratch on the body of the instrument or the slide of the rack (" scratch No. 1"). The operator then placed the point of his nose on the top of the coarse adjustment screw-head, and the left side of his forehead against the projecting rim of the eye-piece, and looked towards the object with the right eye. The object was hidden from the eye by the body of the microscope. body of the microscope was then raised by the coarse adjustment until the object again just came into view, emerging from behind the convex rim of the objective. This point of adjustment was then marked ("scratch No. 2"). The operator had thus four adjusted points: first, the tip of the nose; second, the side of the forehead; third, the most convex part of the rim of the objective; and fourth, the object. The three first of these adjusted points were permanent, while the

The

last might be changed for some other object. When the microscope was marked as above, an object might instantly be found and focussed at any future time by adjusting the microscope to "scratch No. 2," placing the nose and forehead as described, and the object required to be focussed in the fourth adjusted point, and screwing down the body of the microscope to scratch No. 1."

The author illustrated his method before the Society, by instantly placing and focussing several small objects under the microscope without looking through the eye-piece.

III. Remarks on the Musculus Kerato-Cricoideus, a Muscle of the Larynx. (Merkel's Muscle). By WM. TURNER, M.B. (Lond.), M.R.C.S., Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy, University of Edinburga.

The muscular arrangements of the human body have been, during the last two or three centuries, so thoroughly examined, and carefully described, that it rarely falls to the lot of a modern anatomist to discover, merely by the aid of his unassisted vision, a new muscle. To such a structure, however, the attention of anatomists has been recently directed by Dr Carl Merkel of Leipsic, in an elaborate treatise on the Anatomy and Physiology of the Organs of Voice and Speech (Stimm und Sprach Organs, 1857). In this work he has described a muscular slip occasionally extending between the posterior surface of the cricoid cartilage and the posterior margin of the inferior cornu of the thyroid, and thus forming one of the intrinsic muscles of the larynx. His account of the muscle is as follows::

"Musculus Kerato-cricoideus. Horn-Ringknorpelmuskel. -This small, hitherto undescribed muscle, is not found in every larynx, and when present, it exists only on one side, for which reason I have considered it as one of the unsymmetrical muscles of the larynx. It arises, about 1-11"" broad, close to the origin of the outer (or anterior) fibres of the musculus cricoarytenoideus posticus, so that it appears as an additional portion of the same, and probably has been hitherto so regarded by anatomists, or as such overlooked by them. It does not, however, pass upwards with this last muscle, but extends obliquely upwards and outwards, and after a short course is

attached to the posterior margin of the inferior horn of the thyroid cartilage. The inferior laryngeal nerve passes under it, and the kerato-cricoid ligament crosses it at nearly a right angle. The entire muscle is about 3-4" long. Its action, which certainly cannot be important, is to fix the lower horn backwards and downwards; it opposes in some measure the part of the crico-thyroid muscle connected to the anterior margin of the horn." (Pp. 132, 133.)

My attention having been directed some months ago by Professor Goodsir to this description of Dr Merkel, I have since that time carefully examined the larynx in almost all the subjects received into the dissecting-rooms of the University, and have thus been enabled to supplement the account of Dr Merkel with some additional particulars, as well as to correct an error into which he has fallen. Thirty-two specimens have been dissected by me, and amongst these the muscle existed in seven cases, being in the ratio of 21.8 per cent. In four of these it was on the right side only, in two on the left, and in one on both sides. Thus, the statement of Merkel, that the muscle "exists only on one side," is not absolutely correct; and although it is undoubtedly true as a general rule, yet, like most general rules, it admits of occasional exceptions. I have had a drawing made of the larynx, which was from a male subject, in which this double muscle was found, an engraving of which is here subjoined.

The kerato-cricoid muscle is not confined to the larynx of one sex, as I have found it both in the male and female. The majority of cases in which it was present were certainly in the male, but I do not feel disposed to attach much importance to this circumstance, as the examination of a larger number of instances might perhaps alter the proportion, and render it equal in the two sexes.

The muscle exhibits considerable differences in breadth; thus I have found it as much as one-eighth of an inch broad in one larynx (that being the broadest one I have yet seen), and a mere thread in another,-other specimens furnishing examples between these two extremes. In length it corresponds to the distance between its origin on the cricoid and its insertion into the inferior cornu of the thyroid,-a few

tendinous fibres being found at each of these extremities. The muscle appears to be developed in a direct relation to the other laryngeal muscles, for the largest example I have yet seen occurred in a larynx the muscles of which were unusually well formed, whilst the smallest example was found in a larynx

a Inferior cornu of thyroid. b Cricoid cartilage. c Kerato-cricoid muscle. d Inferior laryngeal nerve.

possessing comparatively feeble muscles; at the same time, it must be stated that its existence in a larynx is not necessarily coincident with a general laryngeal muscularity, as I have dissected more than one larynx in which no trace of Merkel's muscle could be found, although the other muscles were extremely well developed. The inferior laryngeal nerve passes under, i.e., in front of, this muscle, and sends a small filament to it. The kerato-cricoideus must thus be classed amongst the occasional muscles of the larynx, and, like other occasional

muscles, the psoas parvus for example, it is most frequently found only on one side-either the right or left, as the case may be the only instance as yet recorded of its existence on both sides being the one above figured.

With regard to its function, it must be evident that it is not essential to the production of the voice, seeing that it is absent in the majority of persons. We cannot, however, doubt that in those cases in which it exists, it determines certain. modifications of sound; for an organ so delicately constructed as the human larynx, and sounds capable of such varying modulation as those of the human voice, depending for their production upon such minute alterations in the relative positions of the vocal cords, will necessarily be more

affected by the contractions of muscular fibres which, from their attachments, are capable of changing the relative position of these cords to each other. But until in the same individual an examination can be made of the powers of the voice. during life, and of the muscular and other arrangements of the larynx after death, it will be difficult to determine with any exactness not only the function of this, but also of many of the other laryngeal muscles.

IV. (1.) Notice of the Capture of an enormous Cycloid Fish in the Bay of San Francisco, California. By ANDREW MURRAY, Esq.

This was a notice of an enormous fish taken at San Francisco. It was 360 pounds in weight, between seven and eight feet in length, and 5 feet 2 inches in girth round the body. It was supposed by its captors, who were probably New Yorkers, to be a giant specimen of the sea basse, or black basse, which is common on the east coast of America, especially about New York; but a scale of the fish, which had been sent home by Mr William Murray of San Francisco, showed that it was not a basse at all, nor any of the perch family. The scale was cycloid, not ctenoid, and the fish was more likely to have belonged to the sea-bream tribe of carps than to the sea basse. No fish of that magnitude belonging to these tribes seems hitherto to have been recorded.

(2.) Mr ANDREW MURRAY exhibited a supposed meteoric stone, sent from Hudson's Bay; which, on a section being made, was found to be simply a smooth rounded mass of ironstone.

V. The Skeleton of a Cœlogenys (mus) paca was exhibited by JOHN CLELAND, M.D.; and various peculiarities of its structure were pointed

out.

VI. Dr BIALLOBLOTSKY addressed the Society at some length on the relations of the branches of trees and plants to the parent stem, forming as they did certain definite angles; he expressed astonishment at finding various evergreens exposed to the cold of our winters which in Germany