THE MICROSCOPE. 127 



pneumonia or fatty degeneration of the heart's muscular tissue^ 

 while section of but one of the vagi causes both these difficulties 

 only in a limited degree — not sufficient to cause death. This 

 afforded another round of discussion in which the medical men took 

 part, all praising Dr. Bleile for his carefully prepared paper when the 

 society voted to have him continue his experiments that further re- 

 sults may be had for our next meeting. 



M. L. Holbrook, of New York, who has been quietly pursuing 

 the "termination of the nerves of the liver," in Dr. Heitzman's 

 laboratory, told us of the results of his researches in a modest but 

 thoroughly convincing manner. The Doctor found that the nerve 

 fibrils do not terminate in the liver cells, as claimed by Pflueger, but 

 in the walls of the capillary vessels, as first revealed by Nesrerowsky. 

 From three to five ramifications enter each of the lobules, taking 

 their course along the capillaries. The specimens exhibited in illus- 

 tration of the paper, were frozen and cut in a microtome, 

 vertically across the arteries and stained in chloride of gold and 

 formic acid. 



The moment it was known that Dr. Holbrook came from 

 Heitzman's laboratory, the discussion upon the paper gradually 

 drifted into the consideration of the so-called reticulum of the blood 

 corpuscle. 



Drs. Barrett and Holbrook feebly protected Heitzman's 

 manipulation of the lenses. 



Dr. Stillson, of Indiana, had seen the reticulated structure un- 

 der Dr. Heitzman's instruments, but was never able himself to dis- 

 cover it. Dr. Blackham thought that Dr. Heitzman's error grew 

 out of the use of very imperfect objectives, and explained how such 

 a result could be given by using the Hartnack lenses. Dr. Mercer 

 ascribed the reticulum to the source of error claimed to have been 

 first discovered by Abbe. 



Dr Deeke, a most patient and pains-taking investigator, had 

 searched for this structure but had only seen it under certain 

 microscopically suspicious circumstances; he was inclined to attrib- 

 ute the effect of net-work to abnormal configurations of granular 

 matter, caused by the action of the bichromate of potash, used in 

 preparing the corpuscles. Dr. Bleile recited the results of Ludwig's 

 experiments, at Leipsig, which tended to show the organization of thf 

 red corpuscle. The president finally concluded the discussion by 



