January 23, 1840.
Sir JOHN BARROW, Bart., V.P., in the Chair.
John Fye Smith, D.D. was balloted for, and duly elected into the Society.
A paper was read, entitled On the structure of Normal and Adventitious Bone." By Alfred Smee, Esq., communicated by P. M. Roget, M.D. Sec. R.S.
On examining, by means of a microscope, very thin sections of bone, prepared in a peculiar manner, the author observed a number of small, irregularly-shaped, oblong corpuscles, arranged in circular layers round the canals of Havers, and also rows of similar bodies distributed around both the external and the internal margins of the bone. Each corpuscle is connected by numerous filaments, passing in all directions with the Haversian canals and the margins of the bone, and also with the adjacent corpuscles. He finds that the ca- nals of Havers are vascular tubes containing blood. The corpuscles themselves are hollow, and their cavities occasionally communicate with those of the canals ; their length is equal to about two or three diameters of the globules of the blood. They exist in cartilaginous as well as osseous structures, and are found in every instance of ad- ventitious bone, such as callus after fracture, morbid ossific growths either from bone or from other tissues ; and the author has also as- certained their presence in the bony and cartilaginous structures of inferior animals, such as birds and fishes. Measurements relating to these corpuscles, by Mr. Bowerbank, are subjoined, from which it appears that their diameters vary from about the 10,000th to the 4000th, and their lengths from the 2300th to the 1400th part of an inch.
An attempt to establish a new and general Notation, applicable to the doctrine of Life Contingencies." By Peter Hardy, Esq., F.R.S.
After premising a short account of the labours of preceding wri- ters, with reference to a system of notation in the mathematical consideration of life contingencies, the author enters at length into an exposition of the system of symbols which he has himself de- vised, together with the applications which they admit of in a variety of cases.
January 30, 1840.
JOHN WILLIAM LUBBOCK, Esq., V.P. and Treasurer, in the Chair.
James Annesley, Esq., was balloted for, and duly elected into the Society.
A paper was read, entitled " Observations on Single Vision with
