4-87 



Mr. Brodie had formerly observed in dogs poisoned by arsenic, a 

 very copious secretion of mucus and watery fluid from the coats of 

 the stomach and intestines, and so rapidly excited, that he conceived 

 this to be a favourable instance for observing the effect of dividing 

 those nerves which supply the stomach. 



He consequently divided the nerves of the eighth pair, with the 

 accompanying sympathetic nerves in the neck of a dog, and imme- 

 diately afterwards inserted ten grains of arsenic into a wound in the 

 thigh. The symptoms which usually appear from the poison of 

 arsenic were soon produced ; but though the dog lingered under this 

 treatment three hours and a half, none of that watery mucus observ- 

 able in other instances of death by arsenic was found in the stomach 

 and intestines, though both stomach and intestines were found much 

 inflamed. 



In a second experiment, during nine hours that the dog lingered 

 under the effects of the arsenic applied also to a wound, no such se- 

 cretion had taken place. 



In the third instance, the dog was made to swallow a solution of 

 arsenic, with the same result, after he had lingered three hours. 



Since in the preceding trials, respiration was disturbed in conse- 

 quence of the injury done to the nerves supplying the thorax, a fourth 

 experiment was made by dividing the lower branches of the eighth 

 pair after their passage through the thorax, where they appear in the 

 resophagus, just above the cardiac orifice of the stomach. In this 

 mode of operating the respiration was not affected ; but still the 

 symptoms and visible effects of the arsenic were the same as before, 

 without any fluid evacuations from either the stomach or intestines. 



From these experiments, the author thinks it hardly possible to 

 avoid the conclusion, that the suppression of these secretions was 

 owing to the division of the nerves ; and that the secretions from the 

 stomach, in general, must be much under the controul of the nervous 

 system. But it appears premature to deduce any conclusion respect- 

 ing their influence over other secretions. 



On a fossil human, Skeleton from Guadeloupe. By Charles Konig, 

 Esq. F.R.S. In a Letter addressed to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph 

 Banks, Bart. K.B.P.R.S. Read February 10, 1814. \PhiLTrans. 

 1814, /. 107.] 



The skeleton described in this letter was contained in a mass of 

 stone nearly two tons in weight, brought home by Sir Alexander 

 Cochrane, and presented by the Admiralty to the British Museum. 

 The existence of such skeletons had been mentioned by General 

 Ernouf, in a letter to Faujas St. Fond, published in the fifth volume 

 of the Annales du Museum ; and also by Lavaisse, in his Voyage a la 

 Trinidad. The block brought home by Sir Alexander Cochrane agreed 

 very correctly with the description given by General Ernouf, mea- 

 suring 8 feet by 2^, having very much the appearance of a huge 

 nodule separated from a surrounding mass, without any marks of a 



