(ressure; and others to the accumulation in the 

 lood of some deleterious substance, and weaken- 

 ing of the blood-pressure, which is ordinarily de- 

 stroyed by the adrenals. 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



561 



liver substance when it has been subjected to thor- 

 ough boiling. 



The Muscular System. Two kinds of mus- 

 cular soreness have been determined in the ergo- 



Prof. Schafer and Dr. Magnus, of Heidelberg, graphic experiments of Mr. Theodore Hough. One 



kind is very marked during work, and may be 

 noticeable for two or three hours afterward. It 

 then passes entirely away. The other kind is not 

 noticed at all at the time of the tracing and for 

 some time afterward. It usually begins abut 

 eight hours after the work, increases to a maxi- 

 mum which may occur from ten to twenty-four 

 or even more hours later. Indeed this soreness 

 may not make its appearance till the second day 

 after the tracing. It gradually passes away, but 

 may be noticeable for four or more days. The 

 first kind of soreness would seem to be due to the 

 same causes as those which produce fatigue, name- 

 ly, the presence of the diffusible waste products 

 of exertion. There are reasons for supposing that 

 the second kind of soreness is fundamentally the 

 result of ruptures within the muscle. 



Presenting the results of a series of experiments 

 relating to the mechanism connecting the muscu- 

 lar apparatus with the centers for willed move- 

 ment having their seat within the brain, Prof. 

 Schafer compared the relative effects of transec- 

 tion of the pyramidal tracts and of the vertical 

 columns of the spinal cord. His observations 

 had been made upon monkeys. Section of the 

 vertical column of the spinal cord had been found 

 to produce paralysis of voluntary movement in 

 the parts of the body lying behind the segmental 

 level of the lesion. The descending fibers of the 

 vertical column of the cord were in the main de- 

 rived from the cells of the nucleus of Deiters in 

 the bulb, a group of fibers that were, on the other 

 hand, related to the impulses entering the brain 

 from the labyrinth organ, namely, the semicircu- 

 lar canals and the ololith organ. It had been 

 proved by Ewald and others that the destruction 

 of the labyrinth organ entailed diminution and 

 impairment of the tonus of the voluntary muscles 

 of the body. 



The Nervous System. In his presidential ad- 

 dress before the American Neurological Associa- 

 tion, Prof. Joseph Collins reviewed the most im- 

 portant work done in neurology during the year. 

 The neuron theory, he said, which to-day stood 

 as the basis of all neurology and neuropathology, 

 in spite of criticisms and of the most elaborate 

 histological investigations, had become more firm- 

 ly established than ever. Recent researches, no- 

 tably those of Apathy and Bethe, were explained 

 as not really antagonistic to it. All investigations 

 tended to show that ontologically the neuroua 

 (or nerve elements) became more intimately uni- 

 ted in series, and that such intimacy was struc- 

 turally heightened by use. There were, however, 

 many obscurities still surrounding the question 

 of the growth of axis-cylinders in relation to the 

 cell bodies or trophic centers, which required to 

 be cleared up. There also remained for solution 

 the question whether in the human cerebral cor- 

 tex the presence of the dendritic cell-processes and 

 the neuroglia sufficed to account for the relatively 

 large separation of the active cell-bodies, or 

 whether a certain amount of intercellular sub- 

 stance remained which accounted for the appear- 

 ance in question. 



In the field of central localization, the results 

 obtained by Horsley and Beevor through the 

 methods of local electric stimulation of the cortex 

 in the higher anthropoid apes had been corrobo- 

 rated and extended by Sherringtoh andGriinbaum. 

 Flechsig, in the latest of his wonderful researches 

 on the association centers of the human brain, 



have found as to the effects of intravenous in- 

 jection of extract of pituitary body upon the act- 

 ivity of the kidneys, that the epithelial part of 

 the pituitary body causes a marked increase in 

 urinary secretion. That part of the gland had al- 

 ways previously been supposed inert. It is 

 urged that the diuretic action now proved to be 

 excited by the gland has a direct bearing upon 

 the disease called acromegaly, in which the pitui- 

 tary body is enlarged and diuresis is present. 



In an investigation of the histological and chem- 

 ical position of iron in the spleen, Dr. W. Brodie, 

 of Edinburgh, by the use of microchemical meth- 

 ods, found the metal contained in the cells and 

 also in bodies not of a cellular nature. Three va- 

 rieties of iron-containing elements are described 

 in the author's paper as belonging to the latter 

 class; and besides these, three proteid bodies con- 

 taining iron which had been obtained by means 

 of purely chemical methods. 



The conclusions drawn by Prof. Ludwig Aschoff, 

 of Gottingen, from experiments concerning the 

 origin of urine albumin tend to confirm Merten's 

 researches and to support the view that the albu- 

 min present in nephritic urine is derived from the 

 blood, and is different from the specific kidney al- 

 bumin. According to the results hitherto obtained 

 a difference appears to exist between the blood 

 serum albumin and the kidney epithelium albu- 

 min. On the other hand, the investigations of 

 von Dungern, Moxtet, MetchnikofF, Schiitzen, and 

 others, point to the existence of a relationship be- 

 tween the proteid constituents of the different 

 epithelial cells as well as of the blood-cells, inas- 

 much as the injection of one kind of cell may 

 yield a serum that acts on several species of cells. 



In a paper read at the annual meeting of the 

 British Medical Association, July 30, after point- 

 ing out that the formation of lymph might be 

 considered in its relation either to the blood or to 

 the tissues, Mr. F. A. Bainbridge passed on to 

 deal with the relation existing between the tis- 

 sue activity and lymph formation. He said that 

 in the case of the submaxillary gland, the liver 

 and the pancreas increased accretion that is, in- 

 creased metabolism invariably led to increased 

 lymph formation. The possibility of the forma- 

 tion of lymph being due to altered capillary pres- 

 sure and permeability was excluded, and it 

 seemed probable that the lymph was formed as a 

 direct result of the metabolism. The author sup- 

 posed that during metabolism crystalloid bodies 

 were formed in the tissues; these passed by diffu- 

 sion into the lymph, raised its osmotic pressure, 

 and therefore attracted water from the blood, the 

 result being an increased flow of dilute lymph. 



Among the results obtained in other experi- 

 ments by Bainbridge respecting the formation of 

 lymph in the liver was the fact that the intra- 

 venous injection of moderate quantities of sodium 

 taurocholate or of pure hemoglobin leads to an 

 increased flow of lymph from that organ, and to 

 increased metabolic activity of the liver cells. 



Representations having been made by some 

 authors that sugar in recognizable quantities had 

 been found in liver after it had been boiled free of 

 that substance, and the conclusion seeming a dif- 

 ficult one to understand, experiments were made 

 by F. W. Pavy and R. L. Siau with the liver of 

 the cat and of the rabbit. The results in both 

 cases were the same, and induced the conclusion 

 that in a sterilized state no sugar is formed in 

 VOL. XLTI. 36 A 



