The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-13 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY

Merry Bird
Green Oaks

Alonz)

Paquetta

IRS'T SOIREE AT THE ROYAL COL-
LEGE OF SURGEONS.
The president and council of the College of Surgeons
gave the first of their three soirees on the occasion of the
Ureat Exhibition, ou Wednesday evening, when Professor
Owen delivered a lecture, of which the follosvng is a brief
summary, to the elite of the profession and several dis-
tinguished foreign surgeons.
The Learned Professor commenced his lecture by re-
marking upon the great difficulty in distinguishing be-
tween animals and plants. The chemist had endea-
voured to help us, and it was supposed that a close
examination might reveal the true nature of dubious
objects ; it was found, however, that many supposed
animals exhale ex) gen, whilst many fungi and alga,
exhale carbonic acid. As regards the binary character
of the vegetable compounds also, and the ternary
and quaternary of animals, it hes lately been shown that
the mantle Cr envelope of the ascidian molusces is com-
posed of a distinct binary compound. So again in re-
spect to the presence of a digestive cavity, the pores in
the auctorial extremity, and the canals in some of the
eutogoa, are clearly analogous to the radiculm
apores and canals of plants. In fine, the progress of
tin
suience not y shows that we have no one dis-
guishing test, but even brings to light more close
analogies. The immediate subject of the evening's dis-
course was to point out two peculiar phases of organic
existence—metamorphosis and metagenesis; the former
was illustrated by the passage of the tadpole from a fishlike
animal, breathing by gills and living on vegetables, to the
carnivorous, air-breathing frog—or, perhaps, more evi.
dently in the development of the perfect, winged insect from
the vermiform larva. In the monostoma mutabile, also, an
eutogoon infesting water-fowl, there is an equally pe-
culiar transformation, one which is particularly interest.
ing, as evidencing the means by which the parasite may
gain admittance to the interior of the body of the
animal on which it preys. It passes from the ovum
in the condition of an undeveloped mass, which shortly
assumes a cercariform type of body, swimming
freely by means of a long tail, until it reaches its des-
tined home—it can then enter by one of the normal
apertures, or perhaps force its way by means of a long,
sharp proboscis. Having entered, it undergoes its
and becomes the fixed, motionless, final changes,
in-
ternal parasite, Zletagenesis was illustrated by the
peculiar parthokenesis or virgin procreation of the
aphides. This, it was stated, had been described many
years ago, and late investigations have clearly proved
the following facts:—In the spring, when the first
animal comes forth from the egg, it has a wingless
somewhat crablike form, and is destitute of organs of
reproduction—but within it may be seen a similar
apnis, to which it gites birth—this to another, and so on
to the seventn or eigath generation; then the spermatic
force seems to exhaust itself in the formation of a perfect
bindorn ivid
with wival, for the ;Isst of these metagenic aphides is
Wings aid reproductive organs complete.
So, again, the medusa aureta, as shown by Siebolt
Stirs and Daleyell, produces an embryo, which, pass-
ing through its first stage as a ciliated genumile, be-
comes fixed and PolYse-like, giving off buds—this polype
then becomes constriited trunversely into segments, until
at last, the constrictions deepening, each segment is cast
off a perfect medusa, with its own generative apparatus—
' testicles or ovaries, ard egg-pouch, as the case may be. A
comparison was thsudrawn between the metagenesis of
a plant and of a compound polype, and the analogy ren-
dered beautifully eleir, it being evident that, as the seed
forms its primary cotyledonary leaf, so the ciliated gene-
mile its first poi) pe ; the plant sends up a prolongation
bearing other leuves,so the polype its stem bearing other
polyps ; lastly, the plant at the end of its axis a
reproductive flower, so the polype an individual with
generative appsratus and just as any leaf
plants) or leaf-bud wll (in some
reproduce the tree, so any polype
may be removed frog the stem and reproduce another.
the Learned Proiessv then traced the embryonic deve-
lopment of the ascaris, and deduced the principle that,
as the impression PrAueed by the impregnation was
diffused through the entire embryonic mass by the va-
rious subdivisions of he germinal vesicle, so, propor-
tion as the cells of tlis mass remained unchanged by
development into tistes, does the property of metage-
nests remain in force. The lecture was heard through-
out with great attentive, and was illustrated with excel! eat
diagrams.

DEATH Or ANOTIER SCOTCLI JUDGE.—Another
of the Scotch Judges, Lord aindrennan, paid the debt of
nature in Edinburgh n Tuesday night, from an attack of
gout, followed by partlysis. The Learned Lord had only
within a few weeks eturned from the north circuit, the
duties of which, owing to the death of Lord Moncrieff,
devolved entirely uposhimself. Lord Dandrennan, whose
name was Thomas AlCitland, was born in October, 1792,
so that he was nearlyiixtyyears of age at the time of his
death. He was call& to the bar in 1813, where he suc-
ceeded in gaining for limself a very eminent position, hav-
ing had an extensive practice, particularly in jury cases.
On the promotion of L)rd Ivory, in 1840, he succeeded to
the office of solicitor7neral, which he held until Sep-
tember. 1841, when the Government of Lord John Russell
was succeeded by that)f Sir Robert Peel. On the death of
Mr. Murray, of Brouglton, in 1845, he came forward as a
candidate for the repre*ntation of the Stewartry of Kirk-
cudbright, in
which his paternal estate of Dun-
drennan is situate, and was elected without oppo-
sition. When the Wiigs
was again a .; returned to power in 1846, he
PPoined Solicitor-General. This ren-
mit necessary for to put his seat in Parliament at
the disposal of his c(nstituents; but he was again elected
without opposition. Hi never made any figure in Parlia-
ment. He held the Iffiee of Solicitor-General from 1843
until the beginning if. 1850, when, on the death of Lord
Jeffrey, he was raised to the bench, with the title of Lord
Dundrennan. llis Loriship, ever since his elevation, sat in
the Outer House, and intil the recant appointment of Lord
Colonsay did all the Bil
Chamber business. He gave great
satisfaction as a judge.
He was married in 1815 to Isabella
Graham Macdowall, thrd daughter of the late James Mac-
dowall, Esq., of Garthl
kid, and a niece of Lord Hermand's,
who, with four sons am
two daughters, survives him. His
Lordship was an entlusiastic book collector, and has left
one of the finest libraries in Scotland.
MEININGEN, MAT 20.—A new edict bas been
added to our statute-bo)k. It regulates the administration
of an oath. The furmua begins with the words, " I take a
solemn oath," tic., and (Includes "So help me God." The
sacredness and inviolablity of the' oath, together with the
punishment attendant ot perjury, must be explained by the
clergyman or rabbi of de respective parties. No Jew is in
future to be compelled o take the oath in the synagogue.-
Jewish Chronicle.
DIPERIAL, PARLIA-IVIENT.

ROUSE 01 COMMONS. June 12.
SUPPLY—NAVY ESTIMATES.
The House then mat into Committee on the navy
estimates.

Sir F. BARING, inproposing the first vote, 718,647/.,
for the retired half-lay allowance of admirals, com-
manders, and lieuterukta in the navy, said it included
the supplemental estivate for retirement.
Mr. I:UME, who mad a notice for going into Com-
mittee, but who was .‘ cut out" apparently for want of
due watchfulness—coriplained that tho recommenda-
tion of the Select Contnittee had not been attended to '
before then, and that tie phut of reduction propsed by
them had been so ion; delayed. If the regulations of
the Admiralty itself "Ed been carried out—those made
by Lord Melville in lB`o, those made in 1826, and those
made in 1830, a great teal of the injustice that had lyzen
done would be obviated The reeommeudatier tbe

DESPERATDE.
On Wednesday an inquest was held at Mr. Gough's, the
Steam-packet Tavern, Strand-on-the-Green, Chiswick,
before Mr. Wakley, deputy coroner for Middlesex, upon
the body of Mr. Samuel Thorrington, aged 58, a coal-
merchant and barge-master, late residing at Hill Cottage,
who destroyed himself by discharging a rifle-pistol at the
back part of his head. The first witness called was
Sophia Thorrington, the deceased's wife, who stated that
on Monday evening, the deceased and herself wero the
only persons in the house. About eight o'clock she
went into a room occupied solely by the deceased, in
which he transacted business, and asked him for an en-
velope to enclose a letter she had been writing to one of
her daughters, who is living at Windsor. He said, "I
won't give you one." He then went into an adjoining
bed-room, and the witness went back to her room and
sat down. In a few minutes he walked in holding a
pistol in his right hand, and exclaimed, "Here, old girl,
t time ome." She, fearing that ho was about
to murder her rushed towards him, caught hold of
the pistol with one hand, whilst with the other she
opened the front door, and ran into the front garden
and called out " Murder, police." A policeman was
passing at the time, and as he was entering
the garden the report of a pistol was heard by
both of them. She returned to her husband's room with
the policeman, and found deceased lying on the sofa,
weltering in his blood, and the pistol grasped in his
right hand. He was then struggling in the agonies of
death. When he came to her he was without his shoes.
Dr. Holdness, of Windsor, had attended him for fifteen
years. Had said he was decidedly insane, and ought to
be under confinement. He appeared always anxious for
business, and closely attended to it. He had said she
was a disreputable woman, and would not believe the
children were his, although she had borne him eight.
He had repeatedly threatened to murder witness. When
she came it was to see his mother, and she took posses-
sion of a small bed-room. When deceased knew she
was in the house he said he would get a policeman to
drive her out, and he only wished he had a pistol. De-
ceased kept a s word between his bed and mattress, and
a brace of pistols on the mantel-piece. She had been
fourteen months away from him. Jessey Allen, police-
constable, 106 F, gave confirmatory evidence. Other
evidence was given, including that of a Mr. Bainbridge,
a son-in-law, who said, that although the deceased lived
separate from his wife, he maintained her by indirect
means, and he had always acknowledged his children;
but there was an unhappy difference existing between
deceased and his wife, created by interfering acquaint-
ances of the vife. A verdict was ultimately returned
that the deceased destroyed himself in an unsound state
of mind.