528 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915. 



Gaskell's work clarified the air. It gave anatomists and physiolo- 

 gists a clearer view of the general arrangement of the efferent 

 nerves governing imstriated muscle and glands, and it directed the 

 attention of physiologists to points which they had singularly neg- 

 lected. It is to be noticed also that Gaskell's earlier theory that the 

 heart beat is not due to the activity of local nerve cells has an 

 intimate bearing on the much-discussed question of the automatic 

 and reflex action of peripheral ganglia. 



In the paper setting forth the conclusions given above, Gaskell dis- 

 cussed a number of other problems of the sympathetic system. His 

 theories were based on facts known at the time, but the experiments 

 to test their wider application were few. Some are still under 

 discussion; some are superseded. The most far-reaching of these 

 theories was on the nature of the difference between motor and 

 inhibitory nerve fibers. In 1881 he had advocated the view that 

 the vagus is the trophic nerve of the heart. Lowit, in 1882, had 

 suggested, on the lines of Hering's theory of assimilatory and dis- 

 similatory processes in the body, that the cardiac inhibitory fibers 

 favor assimilation, and that the accelerator fibers favor dissimi- 

 lation. Gaskell, developing his trophic theory, took a more definite 

 and a wider view and urged that all inhibitory fibers are anabolic, 

 and all motor fibers are katabolic. 



Gaskell's microscopical and anatomical observations led him to 

 questions of morphology. He argued that in a typical spinal seg- 

 ment a lateral root was to be distinguished in addition to the ven- 

 tral and dorsal roots. The lateral root consisted of two parts, one 

 arose from the lateral mesoblast plates of Van Wijlie and supplied 

 the respiratory muscles of Ch. BelFs sj^stem, the other formed the 

 ganglionated nerves of the visceral system. On this basis he dis- 

 cussed the homologies of the cranial and spinal nerves, and returned 

 to this subject in a paper published a few years later. For his 

 work on the nervous system he was awarded the Marshall Hall 

 prize of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1888, and was 

 elected a fellow of the society. 



In 1890 the Nizam of Hyderabad supplied funds to a commis- 

 sion for the investigation of the cause of death under chloroform — 

 the second which he had supported. The commission reported that 

 death was due to an action of the respiratory center, and that if 

 the respiration was carefully attended to it Avas unnecessary to 

 pay any attention to the pulse. These conclusions were directly 

 opposed to common belief based both on experimental and clinic;il 

 observation. One of the members of the commission asked Gaskell 

 to criticize their report. Gaskell arranged with Dr. Shore to make 

 a joint experimental inquiry. Gaskell and Shore, employing vari- 

 ous methods, notably that of cross circulation from one animal to 



