TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 85 
‘brain‘and spinal cord. Dr: Laycock showed that this intercommunication actually 
took place in the ganglia of the spinal:cord, an impression being diffused through all 
parts of the ganglia. _ Dr. Laycock showed that this view of the internal mechanism 
‘of the brain explains those cases of paralysis in which the muscles act normally under 
‘certain conditions, as, for example, when an individual cannot speak what he thinks, 
but is able to read aloud, or repeat what is spoken. Dr. Laycock was of opinion that 
in such an example there was no interruption of continuity between the auditory and 
optic nerves and that part of the brain which subserves to language, nor between the 
latter and the anterior or motor tract of the medulla oblongata; but that the cause of 
the vocal paralysis experienced when the individual attempted to express his thoughts, 
was an interruption of continuity of the fibrils communicating between the portions of 
the brain, or internal periphery, subservient to thought and that subservient to lan- 
guage. 
A Drawing, representing the appearance of the Surface of the Heart in a case 
of Purpura hemorrhagica, presented by T. S. WELLS, Assistant Surgeon, 
Naval Hospital, Malta. 
The subject of the disease was a strong, able seaman, aged twenty-seven, who died 
eight days after the first symptoms presented themselves. The author presented the 
drawing as exhibiting a morbid change extremely rare, and seldom noticed by pa- 
thologists, Dr. Himmelstein, a physician in the Russian naval service, being the only 
author known to the writer of the paper who has remarked changes at all similar. 
On the State of the Deaf and Dumb. By Dr. Fowurr. 
Dr. Fowler communicated some further particulars relative to the case of the woman 
who was blind, deaf and dumb, in Rotherhithe workhouse. Her faculties have much 
improved by education; she is now occupied by employments and surrounded by en- 
joyments, which a few years ago appeared to, be utterly impossible under her peculiar 
deprivation. Dr. F., in continuation, made a few observations on the mental faculties 
‘of animals in reference to those of man; the chief inferiority he described as the 
_absence, in animals, of all ideas of relation and the combinations resulting from it. 
j 
Notice of an Apparatus for delineating correctly the relative position and size 
of the Viscera, either in the Healthy Condition or changed by Disease. By 
io Mr. Srgson. : 
This apparatus consisted of a square frame, covered by transparent lace or muslin, 
which will permanently bear chalk-marks. By taking the outlines of the objects to 
‘be sketched (deformities, well-marked conditions of thoracic or abdominal viscera, &c.) 
‘on the surface looking perpendicularly at the object, a correct outline is easily pro- 
duced even by those who are not artists; this sketch can be readily transferred to 
‘paper by pressure, and if necessary may be reduced by the application of the penta- 
“graph. Mr. Sibson gave an illustration of its use by making sketches from the living 
body, and entered into numerous pathological details to show the importance of fre- 
“quent delineation to ascertain the progress of internal and external disease during 
_ treatment. > 
RQ 
PS BE OO Ee 
On Cranial Vertebre. By Dr. Macponatp. 
_ . The author commenced by enforcing the value and necessity of the study of what 
_ had been termed Transcendental Anatomy. After alluding to the labours of the 
foreign and British investigators of the subject, Dr. Macdonald laid down the elemen- 
tary parts forming a vertebra, which he stated to be, first, a body forming part of the 
_  ¢aulis centralis of the vertebral column ; secondly, the posterior laminz, which meeting 
on the mesial plane form the arch of the vertebral canal, having the spinous processes 
_-more or less developed : each lamina is again subdivided into three elementary divi- 
__»sions, which. he denominates protomeral, deutomeral, and tritomeral; besides these 
__ there are, thirdly, anterior lamin connected with the caulis centralis, exemplified in 
aa ait 
