Literary Notices. \\ 



Malaptaurus ekctricus, differs from all the others in the fact that the 

 electric organs are developed from cutaneus structures, probably the 

 glands. Only two electric nerves exist, which divide into over two 

 million branches. These nerves resemble an electrical cable, envel- 

 oped in an enormous mass of insulating material. These fibres arise 

 in two cells situated much as are Clarke's columns. These cells have 

 no axis cylinder, but their branched protoplasmic processes join and 

 form a kind of perforated plate beneath the cell from which the nerve 

 fibre starts, with a large base. Professor Fritsch thinks the physiology 

 of the electric nerve proves that Nansen is mistaken in regarding the 

 function of motor nerves as trophic simply. 



The Suprarenal Capsules.^ 



Experiments of MM. Abelous and Langlois have thrown new 

 light upon these much discussed bodies. 



The operations were first carried on upon frogs. Destruction of 

 both capsules (by means of actual cautery) proves fatal in from two to 

 thirteen days. Incoordination of muscular movements and finally 

 motor paralysis ensues — in short, general paresis, terminating in 

 paralysis. That the disturbance affects the blood is shown by the 

 fact that if the lymph of the operated frog, when about to die, be 

 injected into a healthy frog the latter is quickly paralyzed. On the 

 other hand, if a part of the kidney, with the adherent capsule, be in- 

 troduced into the dorsal lymph sac of an" operated frog the life of the 

 latter is prolonged. It was found that the blood of an animal deprived 

 of its capsules produces symptoms analogous to those resulting from 

 the administration of curare. Much the same result is obtained by 

 injecting the blood of an acapsulated guinea pig into a frog. It is 

 obvious that some toxic substance accumulates in the blood as a result 

 of the removal of these organs. It is known that the extract of the 

 suprarenal capsules produces symptoms of poisoning and neurin has 

 been suggested as the toxic element, but apparently upon insufficient 

 evidence. 



The Functions of the Froutal Lobe. 



Bianchi has experimentally shown that destruction of the frontal 

 lobes in the monkey cephalad of the excitable area produce no loss of 

 motor function, though there are temporary visual disturbances. 



1 On Internal Secretions and the Functions of the So-called Blood Glands. 

 British Medical Journal: 



