ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



51 



maim; Observations and Experiments on Vision, 

 Color, and Estimation of Time and Two New 

 Departures in Anthropological Method, by W. H. 

 R. Rivers; Observations on the Sense of Touch 

 and of Pain on the Estimation of Weight and 

 Variations of Blood Pressure, by W. McDougall; 

 Stonehenge: Some New Observations and a Sug- 



festion, by Alfred Eddowes; The Discovery of 

 tone Implements in Pitcairn Island, by J. Allen 

 Brown; On the Occurrence of Celtic Types of 

 Fibula of the Hallstatt and La Tene Period in 

 Tunisia and Eastern Algeria, by Arthur J. Evans ; 

 On Irish Copper Celts and On Stone Molds for 

 New Types of Implements from Ireland, by 

 George Coffey; On Recent Ethnographical Work 

 in Scotland, by J. Gray; Recent Anthropometri- 

 cal Work in Egypt and Some Remarks on the 

 "Cero" of St. Ubaldino: the Relic of a Pagan 

 Spring Festival at Gabbio, in Umbria, by D. 

 Maclver; A Study of One Thousand Egyptian 

 Skulls, with Fifty Thousand Measurements, by 

 Donald Macalister; Notes on Color Selection in 

 Man, by John Beddoe; Sequences of Prehistoric 

 Remains and Early Mediterranean Signanis or 

 Alphabets, by W. M. Flinders-Petrie; Primitive 

 Rites of Disposal of the Dead as illustrated by 

 Survivals in Modern India, by W. Crooke; Pre- 

 animistic Religion, by R. R. Marett; Thirty-s,even 

 Nats (or Spirits) of the Burmese, by R. C. Tem- 

 ple; Exhibition of Ethnographical Specimens 

 from Somali, Galla, and Shangalla, by R. Koett- 

 litz; The Ethnography of the Lake Region of 

 Uganda, by J. R. L. Macdonald; and The Eth- 

 nology of West African Tribes North of the 

 Middle Benue, by H. Pope Hennessy. 



Also the following reports were presented be- 

 fore the section: Report on the New Edition of 

 Anthropological Notes and Queries, Report on 

 the Collection, Preservation, and Systematic 

 Registration of Photographs of Anthropological 

 Interest, Report of the Committee for the Ethno- 

 graphical Survey of the United Kingdom, Report 

 of the Committee appointed to investigate the 

 Mental and Physical Deviation from the Normal 

 among Children in Public Elementary and Other 

 Schools, Report on the Lake Village at Glaston- 

 bury, Report on the Analysis of the Metals found 

 in the Lake Village, Report of the Committee 

 appointed to Co-operate with the Silchester Ex- 

 cavation Fund 1 Committee in their Excavations 

 in the Roman City of Silchester, and Report of 

 the Committee appointed for the Ethnographic 

 Survey of Canada. 



I. Physiology. The presiding officer of this sec- 

 tion was Dr. John N. Langley, F. R. S., lecturer 

 on histology in the University of Cambridge. He 

 said: "I propose to consider some relations of 

 the nerves which pass from the brain and spinal 

 cord and convey impulses to the other tissues of 

 the body the motor or efferent nerves and in 

 especial the relations of those efferent nerves 

 which run to the tissues over which we have little 

 or no voluntary control." Concerning limitations 

 in the control of the nervous system over the tis- 

 sues of the body, he contended that " this control 

 is in considerable part indirect only, the several 

 tissues are in varying degree under direct control, 

 and different parts of one tissue may be influenced 

 by the nervous sys'tem to different extents." As 

 to limitations in the control of the nervous sys- 

 tem over the different activities, he said that 

 " even when nervous impulses can strikingly af- 

 fect the vital activity of a tissue their action is 

 limited." After discussing the somatic or vol- 

 untary nervous system, he passed to the auto- 

 nomic or involuntary tissues, which, he said, " al- 

 though not under the prompt and immediate con- 



trol of the will, are under the control of the 

 higher centers of the brain." The arrangement 

 of the involuntary nervous system was described, 

 as well as the cranial and sacral systems. He 

 discussed inhibition, and said that the heart, 

 stomach, and intestines work when no longer con- 

 nected with the central nervous systems, and that 

 they are especially liable to inhibition. Under 

 the caption of the view of the equal endowment 

 of the tissues, he denied the probability that all 

 unstriated muscle and glands, and even the vol- 

 untary muscles, have inhibition nerve fibers. Ex- 

 perimental evidence, he asserted, was fairly de- 

 cisive in favor of the simple view that the nerve 

 impulse passes indirectly through one " relay sta- 

 tion " only from the central nervous system to 

 the involuntary tissues. His final topic was a 

 discussion on the regeneration of certain nerves. 

 He said : " The factors which determine whether 

 a particular tissue or part of a tissue is eventual- 

 ly supplied wjth nerve endings, and the degree of 

 development of these, are the factors which de- 

 termine evolution in general. In the individual 

 it is exercise of function which leads to the de- 

 velopment of particular parts ; in the race it is the 

 utility of this development which leads to their 

 preservation. And so it is conceivable that in 

 some lower vertebrate at some time the autonomic 

 nervous system may have developed especially 

 in connection with those tissues which appear in 

 ourselves to be wholly unprovided with motor 

 nerve fibers." 



The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section: Auto-intoxication as a 

 Cause of Pancreatic Diabetes, by J. H. Tuckett; 

 The Effects of Pituitary Extract, by Edward A. 

 Schiifer and Swale Vincent; The Theory of Hear- 

 ing, by A. A. Gray; A New Instrument for meas- 

 uring the Duration of Persistence of Vision on 

 the Human Retina and A New Instrument for 

 measuring the Persistence of Duration of Vision, 

 by E. S. Bruce; (1) On the Resonance of Nerve 

 and Muscle; (2) The Propagation of Impulses in 

 the Rabbit's Heart; (3) Fibrillation and Pulsa- 

 tion of the Dog's Heart, by H. Kronecker and F. 

 C. Busch; The Effects of Successive Stimulation 

 of the Viscera and Vasomotor Nerves of the 

 Intestine, by M. Bunch; On the Innervation of 

 the Thoracic Part of the CEsophagus, by H. 

 Kronecker and W. Muklberg; Experiments on a 

 Dog with a Vella Fistula, by H. Kronecker and 

 T. E. Essdemont; On Variations in the Tonus 

 of the Sphincter of the Bladder and The Depend- 

 ence of the Tonus of the Muscles of the Bladder 

 in Rabbits on the Spinal Cord, by H. Kronecker 

 and Dr. Arnold; On Respiration on Mountains, 

 by H. Kronecker and Dr. Burgi; Protamines and 

 their Cleavage Products: Their Physiological Ef- 

 fects, by W. H. Thompson; The Vascular Mechan- 

 ism of the Testes, by W. E. Dixon; Observations 

 on Visual Acuity from Torres Strait, by W. H. R. 

 Rivers; On Protamines: The Simplest Proteids, 

 by Prof. Kossel ; and Observations on Visual Acu- 

 ity from New Guinea, by C. G. Seligmann. 



K. Botany. Sir George King presided over this 

 section, and gave as his address a sketch of the 

 history of Indian botany. He pointed out that 

 the first contribution to the knowledge of the 

 botany of what is now British India was made 

 by the Dutch. The active study of botany on the 

 binomial system of nomenclature invented by 

 Linnaeus was initiated in India by Koenig; and 

 the subsequent history of botanic science in India 

 might be divided into "two periods, the first extend- 

 ing from Koenig's arrival, in 1767, to Sir Joseph 

 Hooker's arrival, in 1849, and the second extend- 

 ing from the latter date to the present day. He 



