18 Mr. F. Gotch and Prof. Victor Horsley. [Nov. 35, 



Saliva produced by stimulating the chorda tympani, or by injecting 

 pilocarpin, after a small dose of atropin has been given, contains a 

 low percentage of organic substance and of salts. 



We, like Werther, find that sub-lingual saliva has a considerably 

 higher percentage of salts than sub-maxillary saliva. 



If lithium citrate, potassium iodide, potassium ferrocyanide, and 

 pilocarpin are injected into the blood, lithium can be detected in the 

 first drops of saliva secreted, potassium iodide after the first six drops ; 

 potassium ferrocyanide cannot be detected at any stage of secretion. 



The general result of these experiments is to show that the secre- 

 tion of water, of salts, and of organic substance are differently 

 affected by different conditions, and that the percentage composition 

 of saliva is determined by the strength of the stimulus, by the 

 character of the blood, and by the amount of blood supplied to the 

 gland. 



All or nearly all the arguments which have been adduced to prove 

 that the secretion of organic substance is governed by special nerve- 

 fibres, have their counterparts with regard to the secretion of salts, 

 so that we might imagine at least three kinds of secretory fibres to be 

 present. The experiments, on the whole, indicate that this compli- 

 cated arrangement does not exist, but that the stimulation of a single 

 kind of nerve-fibre produces varying effects according to the varying 

 conditions of the gland cells. 



1Y- " Observations upon the Electromotive Changes in the 

 Mammalian Spinal Cord following Electrical Excitation of 

 the Cortex Cerebri. Preliminary Notice." By FRANCIS 

 GOTCH, Hon. M.A. Oxon, B.A., B.Sc. Lond., and VICTOR 

 HORSLEY, B.S., F.R.S., Professor of Pathology, University 

 College, London. (From the Physiological Laboratory of 

 the University of Oxford.) Received August 2.7, 1888. 

 [PLATE 1.] 



Hitherto pathologists have attempted the analysis of the epileptic 

 convulsion by the graphic method, that is, by recording the spasmodic 

 contractions of the muscles involved. Recent investigations of this 

 kind have shown that the excitation of the cortex cerebri, whether by 

 electrical or chemical means, or by the presence of certain patho- 

 logical states, neoplasms, inflammation, &c., is invariably followed in 

 the higher mammals by a definite and characteristic sequence of 

 movements in the muscles. It is, however, obvious that such investi- 

 gations have up to the present succeeded in deter mining the characters 

 o? the neural disturbance only when this has reached the peripheral 



