Literary Notices. xxiii 



ner of executing tlie extirpation on the duck, and the preparation of 

 the material for microscopical examination, are worthy of note. The 

 studies on frogs were used as checks on the results obtained from the 

 ducks, and resulted in every case in confirmation only. A biliography 

 is appended h. heath bawden. 



KdalioiiH Ilchvoen t!ie Xosc ami Scximl Organs.^ 



Wliilc the relation between sexual disturbances and morbid condi- 

 tions of the eye, ear and throat was early recognized, the part which 

 they play in the production of nasal disease has until very recent times 

 been overlooked. The earlier physiognomists, indeed, laid great stress 

 on the size and form of the nose as an indication of corresponding 

 sexual qualities, while in astrology Venus presided over the nose as 

 well as over generation. But until quite recently it has not received 

 the attention it deserves from either the medical profession or from in- 

 vestigators. Dr. Mackenzie has already pointed out, in a previous 

 publication (On Nasal Cough and the Existence of a Sensitive Reflex 

 Area in the Nose, Am. Jour. Med. Sciences, July, i8S,^) the exist- 

 ence of a definite well-defined sensitive area, whose stimulation, either 

 through a local pathological process, or through the action of an irri- 

 tant introduced from without, is capable of producing an excitation 

 which finds its expression in a reflex act or in a series of reflected phe- 

 nomena. This tissue is essentially the anatomical analogue of the 

 erectile tissue of the penis. It is the temporary erection of this tissue, 

 the dilation of its cells being, in all probability, under the direct do- 

 minion of vasomotor nerves derived through the spheno-palatine gang- 

 lion, that constitutes the anatomical explanation of the stoppage of the 

 nostrils in coryzaand allied conditions. This erectile area is, moreover, 

 especially concerned in the evolution of the many curious " reflex" 

 phenomena which are observed in connection with nasal affections. 

 Indeed, the changes which it undergoes seem to lie at the foundation 

 of nasal pathology, and furnish the key not only to the correct inter- 

 pretation of nasal disease, but also to many obscure affections in other 

 and remote organs of the body. That an intimate physiological rela- 

 tionship exists between the sexual apparatus and the nose, and especi- 

 ally the intra-nasal erectile tissue, is supported by the following physio- 

 logical data corrobborated by evidence from pathology. These are 



1 The Physiological and Pathological Relations Between the Nose and the 

 Sexual Apparatus of Man. By J. N. Mackenzie, y£>/^/z5 Hopkins Hospital Report, 

 Jan., 189S, pp. 10-17 ; ^"cl Alienist a)td Kcurologist, XIX, 2, April, 1S9S. 



