202 RESEARCH 



As a result of its work, the collection and description 

 of such remains is now recognised as a duty of every 

 trained excavator, and through this new collaboration 

 of experts in sciences at first sight unrelated, additions 

 have been made to knowledge of the historical botany 

 and zoology of the British Isles. 



PHYSIOLOGY 



Among the physiological researches which have 

 yielded results of permanent value we find, in the 

 earliest years, Williams' experiments on the lungs 

 and bronchi (1840), and the inquiry into asphyxia 

 entrusted to Erichsen and Sharpey (1844). In 1861- 

 1863 a committee reported upon ' The Effect of 

 Prison Diet and Discipline upon the Bodily Functions 

 of Prisoners,' and incidentally revealed in its report 

 that uniformity was wholly wanting, not only in the 

 dietary, but also in systems of punishment, so that 

 ' those who are condemned to imprisonment receive 

 very different treatment in different parts of the 

 kingdom.' ' In some [county prisons] the treadwheel 

 and crank are exceptional employments ; in others 

 they are universally used for a small part of the 

 sentence ; whilst in a third class they are the constant 

 employments during the whole term of imprisonment.' 

 ' Oakum-picking is no labour in one prison, and hard 

 labour in another ; ... in some the cat is so heavy, 

 and the officer's arm so strong and willing, that 

 the prisoner is for a time made insensible to pain 

 after a few strokes, whilst in other prisons it is so 

 light as to leave very little evidence of its use.' l 

 There was one gaol in which bread and water were 



1 Report, 1861, pp. 44 et seq. 



