INTERNAL SECRETIONS OF SEXUAL GLANDS loi 



a cotton wool pad soaked with stovaine on the corpora bigemina 

 the clasp reflex could be inhibited. Contrary to the former 

 authors, Baglioni concludes that in the corpora bigemina there 

 are no inhibiting centres ; Baglioni suggests that centres evoking 

 the clasp reflex are to be found in the corpora bigemina. 



The contradictory results obtained by Baglioni are possibly 

 to be explained by the assumption that the electric stimulation 

 or the influence of the poison affected in reality not only the 

 corpora bigemina, but also the spinal cord. Baglioni con- 

 firmed the statement that by sectioning the spinal cord just 

 below the medulla oblongata the clasp reflex can be evoked 

 also outside the time of heat. In toads Baghoni obtained the 

 clasp reflex by this operation, even in females. But as Baglioni 

 points out, the reflex obtained in male and female in such a 

 way is in reality not the true clasp reflex, but a climb reflex. 

 Some further observations of Baglioni show also that certain in- 

 hibitory effects, due normally to the cerebral centres, are not 

 displayed during heat. He found that the clasping male frog 

 makes a prolonged extensory movement with the hind legs when 

 touched on the soles of the feet. Outside the time of heat the 

 same tonic movement can be observed only in frogs in which 

 a section had been made between the medulla and the spinal 

 cord. 



As regards the sensitive parts in the skin from which the 

 clasp reflex can be evoked, Steinach and Langhans made 

 observations showing that probably the pads are a special 

 sensitive organ. According to them the clasp reflex can be 

 inhibited by painting the pads with a 5 per cent, solution of 

 cocaine. Steinach thinks that the clasp reflex can be evoked 

 by stimulation of the skin itself, owing to the fact that by stimu- 

 lation of the skin the pads are in reahty simultaneously 

 mechanically stimulated. According to Schrader the clasp 

 reflex lasts very long only in cases where it is evoked by the 

 female itself, although, as we know, anything touching the 

 skin of the breast can evoke the reflex. Evidently there are 

 certain special influences coming from the female and acting 

 on the male which cause the prolonged reflex. 



In view of these considerations one sees that the clasp reflex 

 of the frog in heat, which at first sight seems to be so simple, 

 is in reality a very complicated nervous mechanism, in which 

 both stimulating and inhibitory impulses play a part. The 



