672 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



this condition, though present to some degree in 

 monkeys, diminishes regularly as we descend 

 lower in the mammalian scale, till at last it is 

 not seen at all ; and that human fetal ganglia do 

 not show any of these changes in their nerve- 

 cells. These facts, the author adds, " seem to 

 show that the superior cervical ganglion is be- 

 coming less and less functionally important 

 the higher we ascend in the animal scale, till 

 in the human adult its minimum of importance 

 is reached. It is, in fact, an atrophied degen- 

 erate organ, like the coccyx or the appendix 

 caeci. So that, although I do not pretend to 

 have discovered whatever function the superior 

 cervical ganglion may have in the lower mam- 

 malia, it is probably dying out in us." 



In demonstrating the structure of the epi- 

 dermis, Dr. Blaschko remarked that, starting 

 with the assumption that the final endings of 

 the nerves of feeling must be sought in the 

 layer of the epidermis, and not in the cutis, 

 he had studied the structure of the upper skin 

 at the boundary between epidermis and cutis. 

 He distinguished the main parts of direct feel- 

 ing (the hairless parts of the skin) from the 

 parts of indirect feeling (the hairy parts of the 

 skin). The former possessed on the under side 

 of the epidermis very beautifully developed 

 grooves (Leisteri), forming a reticular system 

 with spiral longitudinal and transverse lines. 

 The hairy parts of the skin were influenced in 

 their structure by the hairs, which likewise 

 stood in spiral series, and had but very indis- 

 tinct reticulations in the intermediate spaces. 



Researches made by Dr. Joseph on the 

 physiology of the spinal ganglia show that 

 there are a number of nerve-fibers which sim- 

 ply pass through the ganglion without being 

 connected with its cells ; that the ganglion is 

 the trophic center for the large number of 

 sensory nerves; and that the gangl ionic cells 

 are bipolar. 



Experiments by J. W. Warren upon the 

 effect of pure alcohol on the reaction time, 

 warrant, the conclusions that the changes in 

 this time, after taking varying amounts of 

 pure alcohol, are, on the whole, more con- 

 siderable than those occurring in equally long 

 experiments without alcohol ; that there is no 

 obvious and unquestionable relation of the 

 effect, in quality or in quantity, either to the 

 amount of alcohol taken, or to the time during 

 which its influence has been exerted ; and that 

 where the normal observations are subject to 

 great variations from day to day, the alcohol 

 appears to lessen these variations and to bring 

 the observations to a common mean. 



Special Senses. " The Muscular Sense ; its 

 Nature and Cortical Localization" has been 

 made the subject of a discussion in the Neu- 

 rological Society of London, which was opened 

 by H. Charlton Bastian, M. D. Recognizing 

 the inherent difficulties of the subject and the 

 unsettled state of opinion on it, the author 

 premised that the discussion might do good, if 

 not by leading to the immediate settlement of 



the many points still in dispute, at least by 

 serving to bring out into clearer light the na- 

 ture of the problems to be settled by future 

 workers and thinkers. The subject, he adds, is 

 eminently one of those on which observation 

 and experiment alone will not suffice, especially 

 observations and experiments conducted upon 

 lower animals. Dr. Bastian expresses the 

 opinion that the evidence in our possession 

 points very strongly to the conclusion that 

 Terrier's so-called " motor centers " are in 

 reality kinsesthetic centers in which " muscu- 

 lar sense " impressions in particular have been 

 registered. As reasons supporting this con- 

 clusion, he adduces that all the effects result- 

 ing from the stimulation or destruction of these 

 centers are in accordance with it; and that 

 the view that "motor centers" exist in the 

 cerebral cortex can not be correct, unless it 

 can be shown that there is in the cortex of 

 each hemisphere another totally distinct set of 

 centers, the stimulation of which evokes defi- 

 nite movements, and the destruction of which 

 involves an inability to execute the same move- 

 ments. But both experimental physiology and 

 clinical medicine support the fact that there 

 is but one set of areas (Rolandic and marginal) 

 in which irritation or destruction leads to any 

 such results. 



The Rev. J. L. Zabriskie observes of the 

 vision of the honey-bee, that it sees, as it 

 were, through the woods. The ocelli are situ- 

 ated on the top of the head, arranged as in an 

 equilateral triangle, so that one is directed to 

 the front, one to the right, and one to the left. 

 " Long, branching hairs on the crown of the 

 head stand thick, like a miniature forest, so that 

 an ocellus is scarcely discernible except from 

 a particular point of view ; " and then the ob- 

 server remarks an opening through the hairs 

 a cleared pathway, as it were, in such a 

 forest and notes that the ocellus, looking like 

 a glittering globe half immersed in the sub- 

 stance of the head, lies at the inner end of the 

 path. The opening connected with the front 

 ocellus expands forward from it like a funnel 

 with an angle of about fifteen degrees. The 

 side ocelli have paths more narrow, but open- 

 ing more vertically, so that the two together 

 command a field which, though hedged in an- 

 teriorly and posteriorly, embraces in a piano 

 transverse to the axis of the insect's body, 

 an angle of nearly one hundred and eighty 

 degrees. 



Color perception, as explained by Dr. Charles 

 A. Oliver, in his " Correlation Theory " upon 

 the subject, is not dependent upon specializa- 

 tion of nerve-fibers, but takes place through 

 each and every optical nerve-filament. " Jt 

 consists in the passive separation of a specific 

 nerve-energy equal to. the exposed natural 

 color, from a supposed 'energy equivalent' 

 resident in the peripheral nerve tip, by an 

 active chemico-vital process of the impinging 

 natural color vibration upon the sensitized 

 nerve terminal. The separated nerve-energy 



