REPORT ON ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. 127 



where they are not so, they are found to be not peculiar to mi- 

 nute organic products, but are observed also in unorganized mo- 

 lecules moving in fluids under the microscope*. 



How quickly the body reacts upon the blood, is proved by the 

 direct experiments of Thackrah, Scudamore and J. Davy, who 

 found the quantity of fibrin to vary in different portions of the 

 blood during the same bleeding : generally diminish ing. 



That a due supply of arterial blood is necessary for svipport- 

 ing the functions of the more important organs of the body, is 

 seen from the singular anastomoses of the large arteries of the 

 brain ; from the care taken to guard some of them from pres- 

 sure ; from the imperfection observable in the muscular and ner- 

 vous powers of persons in whom the septum of the heart is im- 

 perfect, or the ductus arteriosus open ; and numerous other in- 



* Thus, Dr. Czermack of Vienna observed a peculiar motion of tlie particles 

 of the blood when one of the vessels of the gills in the larva of the Salamandra 

 atra was cut through. The particles, under the microscope, of the effused blood 

 were seen to have an irregular motion backwards and forwards at some points, 

 but generally to move round in circles or ellipses. Dr. Sharpey has shown 

 {Edinburgh Medical Journal, 1 830,) that in the larva of the Frog and Salamander 

 in the Mollusca and other inferior aquatic animals, the exterior covering of the 

 body genei-ally, but especially of the respiratory organs, possesses the power of 

 impelling the water contiguous to it in a determinate direction along the sur- 

 face, by which a constant current is kept up, and successive portions of water 

 brought in contact with the gills, replacing the action of the respiratory muscles 

 in higher creatures. Drs. Purkinje and Valentin have lately published an in- 

 teresting paper in Miiller's Archiven, Part V. 1 834, in which are detailed ad- 

 ditional observations of the same kind. Whilst seeking for ovules in the tubes 

 of Rabbits which had been impregnated three days, they observed by the micro- 

 scope that minute particles of the mucous membrane of the tubes presented a 

 lively motion under watei*, rolling round their axes, and recognised it as a mo- 

 tion similar to that of the cilia of Infusories (Flimmerhewegung). Tl>e mucous 

 membrane also of the entire uterus and generative passages exhibited similar 

 motions, though with different degrees of vivacity. These distinguished observers 

 were thus induced to inquire further. They found that in all Amphibia, as Ser- 

 pents, Lizards, &c., in Birds, and in Mammalia, the entire surface of the mucous 

 membrane of the oviduct presents this glittering motion (Flimmert) ; also the 

 mucous membrane of the respiratory passages to their most minute subdivisions. 

 It could not be observed in the mucous membrane of the glottis, of the vocal 

 ligaments, of the mouth or gullet (Nasen-schleimhaut appears from the context 

 to be a misprint for Rachen-sclileimhaut), of any part of the digestive tube or 

 its appendages. So much the more remarkable was the observation of it in the 

 nose, whilst the phasnomenon ceased exactly on the limits of these parts. Its 

 presence serves as a sure criterion, where the membrane exactly begins to form 

 a part of the respiratory organ. In the Amphibia, as the Salamander, where the 

 mouth is not merely for swallowing, but is also a respiratory organ, the motion 

 is very lively. The phenomenon could not be perceived in any fishes which 

 were examined; but appeared to the authors, as far as their observations have 

 hitherto extended, to be confined to the mucous surface of the respiratory organs, 

 and of the female generative organs in Amphibia, Birds, and Mammalia. Such 

 portions of the mucous membrane are provided with cilia, according to these 

 observations. 



