Anatmny and Medicine. 4S5 



teries supplying inflamed parts, — both their elasticity, and that ad- 

 ditional power which they possess during life, and retain for some 

 hours after apparent death, — appears to be decidedly kss than that 

 of the corresponding arteries of sound limbs. The members of the 

 Committees resident in Edinburgh were directed to repeat and 

 vary the experiments detailed in both the papers by Dr Alison, 

 and to report the results of their observations to the Section at 

 next meeting. 



Dr Macdonnell communicated the results of a long continued se- 

 ries of observations made by him since the year 1784, on the influ- 

 ence which posture exercises on the quickness of the pulse, and on 

 the connexion between the frequency of the pidse and of the respi- 

 ration both in health and in disease, and suggested certain practical 

 applications of these views to the distinction of diseases. — Dr W. 

 Thomson suggested, that as the pressure of business rendered it im- 

 possible to enter so fully on the consideration of this very important 

 subject as was desirable, Dr Macdonnell should be requested to pre- 

 pare a fuller account of his experiments and observations, to be laid 

 before the Medical Section at the next meeting of the Association, 

 which proposal was approved of. 



Dr Bushnan exhibited some specimens of small animals which he 

 had found in liuman blood ; when some remarks were made by Dr 

 Anderson, suggesting doubts as to whether these animals had not 

 found their way into the blood subsequently to its being drawn 

 from the body. The Chairman suggested the necessity of farther 

 observations for determining whether the animals in question can 

 be regarded as entozoa. 



Dr T. J. Aitkin communicated the result of his inquiries into the 

 varieties of mechanism by which the blood may be accelerated or 

 retarded in the arterial and venous systems of the mammalia. Af- 

 ter stating that his attention had for some time been directed to this 

 subject, which he conceived to be of great interest to the physiolo- 

 gist, he particularly drew the attention of the Section to four mo- 

 difications of arterial distribution, as indicated, 1*^, By the angle at 

 which a branch comes off^ from its trunk ; ^dly. The direction of the 

 vessel ; 3<%, The subdivision ; and Athly^ The formation of plexus. 

 In illustration of the first, or an^le of origin, he exhibited a prepa- 

 ration of the aorta of the tiger, in which the superior intercostals 

 arose at an acute, the middle at a right, and the lower at an obtuse 

 angle ; from which he inferred that the force and velocity of the 

 blood are rendered equal through the whole series. In speaking 



