Michael Foster, Walter Gaskell 303 



heart control its beat. But there is some evidence that the 

 nerves were not the sole controlling cause, and in a series 

 of masterly papers Gaskell expounded the view of the 

 muscular origin of the beat, and showed how the beat is 

 conducted in the four chambers of the heart. Recently 

 great advances have been made in the application of physio- 

 logical methods to the clinical examination of the heart, and 

 this great help to suffering humanity is largely based upon 

 Gaskell 's work. His studies on nerves led him on to investi- 

 gate the structure, origin, and connexions of the sympa- 

 thetic nervous system. He described the relations of these 

 ganglia with the spinal cord, and gave an accurate inter- 

 pretation of their mode of action. His last book, the proof 

 sheets of which he finished correcting the day before the 

 stroke which ended his life, is entitled " The Involuntary 

 Nervous System." 



In the early nineties he turned away from his normal 

 work to investigate the action of chloroform on the heart. 

 A Commission had been formed and financed by the Nizam 

 of Hyderabad to investigate the cause of death under 

 chloroform. The Commission reported that death was 

 usually due to the action of the respiratory centre. On 

 re-investigating, with the assistance of Dr. L. Shore of 

 St. John's College, Cambridge, it was found that chloroform 

 had a direct weakening effect on the heart, and that respira- 

 tion is not the only factor to be watched when that anaesthetic 

 is administered. 



Gaskell's work had always been rather on the morpho- 

 logical side, and his third line of enquiry was into the origin 

 of vertebrates from invertebrates. His work on this subject 

 is a monument of ingenuity and a monument of patience. 

 In his view, vertebrates had been derived from some possible 

 crustacean or arachnid-like ancestor, and his investigations 

 into the structure and histology of Limulus and of the larval 

 lamprey added vastly to our knowledge of these organisms. 

 But in spite of all his ingenuity and all his patient persistence, 

 he failed to carrry conviction to the heart of his critics, and 

 all we can say about it is that his theory, like other theories 

 of the origin of vertebrates from invertebrates, is still 

 unproven. 



