670 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



officers of the navy and mercantile service and 

 others should study these conditions in the 

 light of physiology. What is it that is most at 

 fault? Is tropical amemia a diminished forma- 

 tion or an increased destruction of blood? 

 It is found, not only where malaria, pernicious 

 relapsing fever, dysentery, or yellow fever pre- 

 vail, but it occurs apart from those diseases. 

 This increase of blood disintegration excites a 

 great tendency to disorders of the liver, which 

 is the main point of attack for diseases of ac- 

 climatization. The study of the particular dis- 

 orders induced by acclimatization in individual 

 organs, is a duty that is imposed upon the 

 science of the colonizing nations. 



A paper on the " Physiology of Shorthand 

 Writing," by Dr. Gowers, excited considerable 

 interest at the Shorthand Congress of 1887. 

 Shorthand being only a variety of writing, the 

 paper was mainly occupied with the cerebral 

 physiology of writing. It was explained that 

 the arm-center of the cortex is merely con- 

 cerned in producing the movements for the 

 written symbols, and that the word-processes 

 are arranged in the motor speech-center on the 

 left side, as is shown by the fact that disease 

 of this center abolishes the power of writing as 

 well as of speech. Thus, in the work of the 

 reporter, so far as is at present known, there is 

 no direct transfer of the nerve-processes from 

 the auditory to the arm- center; they must go 

 through the motor speech-center. The fact 

 that it is the activity of the latter center which 

 excites the arm-center and the movements for 

 the written symbols, affords a strong theoret- 

 ical justification for the phonetic element in 

 shorthand, in which the written symbols are 

 uniform for the same speech-processes. The 

 non-phonetic systems, in so far as they do not 

 adopt the phonetic principle, proceed on a re- 

 symbolizing of the ordinary longhand signs ; 

 there are two steps to the process, whereas in 

 the phonetic systems the symbols replace the 

 longhand signs, and are placed at once on their 

 permanent footing in direct relation to the 

 speech-processes. It was mentioned that many 

 persons, perhaps all persons, read by means of 

 the motor speech-center, so that if this is de- 

 stroyed the power of reading is lost; and il- 

 literate persons actually move the lips in read- 

 ing. This affords another justification for the 

 phonetic principle i. e., for the uniformity of 

 relation between the written symbols and the 

 motor processes. 



Mr. A. E. Wallace accounts for the white 

 color of Arctic animals by his theory of pro- 

 tective adaptation or mimicry. The validity 

 of this explanation is disputed by Mr. R. Mel- 

 dola, who has mentioned some Arctic animals 

 that are not white, and regards that color as 

 having some relation to the radiation or ab- 

 sorption of heat. Mr. Wallace, in defending 

 his own view, says that " if the white colora- 

 tion of Arctic animals stood alone, it might be 

 thought necessary to supplement the protective 

 theory by some physical explanation, but we 



have to take account of the parallel cases of 

 the sand-colored desert animals, and the green- 

 colored denizens of the ever-verdant tropical 

 forests ; and, though in both these regions there 

 are numerous exceptional cases, we can almost 

 always see the reason of these, either in the 

 absence of the need of protection, or in the 

 greater importance of conspicuous covering. 

 In the Arctic regions the exceptions are par- 

 ticularly instructive, because the reason of them 

 is obvious." The Arctic wolf does not turn 

 white, because he hunts in packs, and conceal- 

 ment is not necessary; the musk-sheep, yak, 

 moose, caribou, and reindeer are able to take 

 care of themselves, and need no protection or 

 concealment. The glutton and sable are dark 

 colored because they live in trees, and must 

 look like them. The raven, living on carion, 

 requires no concealment, and continues black. 

 Mr. Wallace is of the opinion that color has 

 very little to do with the absorption or radia- 

 tion of heat, because those matters are largely 

 determined by the structure and surface-texture 

 of the colored substances. 



Lanoline is the name given by Prof. Liebreich 

 to a new fat, composed of sebacic acid and 

 cholesterine, which he has found in sheep's 

 wool. It appears to reside exclusively in the 

 hairs and the epidermis skin. The author had 

 found it in the epidermis, the hairs, and the 

 nails of men, in the hairs of all mammalia 

 he had examined, in the hoofs of horses and 

 swine, the horns of cattle, the prickles of the 

 hedgehog, the feathers of fowls, geese, and 

 other birds, and in the plated sheaths of the 

 tortoise ; in short, in all horned textures which 

 he had examined. Also in the kidneys and the 

 liver of mammalia. It would probably be found 

 generally where epithelial cells occur. The con- 

 stant presence in all epithelial formations of a 

 particular fat, which was there formed in the 

 keratine cells, rendered it highly probable that 

 the hairs of mammalia and the feathers of birds 

 owe their elasticity and pliancy not exclusively 

 to the secretion of the sebaceous or caudal 

 glands, but to the cholesterine fat generated in 

 the horn cells themselves. The quality pos- 

 sessed by cholesterine fat of not oxidizing, or 

 of oxidizing only under very rare conditions, 

 renders it peculiarly adapted for lubricating 

 the skin and feathers. Beyond the property 

 of not becoming rancid, lanoline possesses a se- 

 ries of other advantages distinguishing it pe- 

 culiarly as a salve constituent. It absorbs, for 

 example, 100 per cent, of water, and by so do- 

 ing becomes a soft substance, pleasant to the 

 touch, penetrating the skin with extraordinary 

 facility, and disappearing from view after a 

 short rubbing of the cutis. 



Nervous System. In discussing the question 

 of the nature of nerve-force, Dr. H. P. Bow- 

 ditch has presented as important facts, forbid- 

 ding the identification of that force with elec- 

 tricity, the absence of an insulating sheath on 

 the nerve-fiber, the slow rate at which the force 

 is transmitted, and the effect of a ligature on 



