478 



NA TURE 



[March 14, 1889 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, February 21. — "The Innervation of the 

 Pulmonary Vessels." By J. Rose Bradford, M.B., D.Sc, 

 -George Henry Lewes Suident, and H. Percy Dean, M.B., 

 B.S.,' B.Sc. Communicated by E. A. Scliiifer, F.R.S. (From 

 the Physiological Laboratory of University College, London.) 



Hitherto no direct experimental proof of the existence of 

 vasomotor fibres for the vessels of the mammalian lung has 

 been obtained. The method used by us consisted in exciting 

 the roots of the upper dorsal nerves, and recording simultaneously 

 the effects produced on the aortic and pulmonary blood-pressure. 

 The aortic pressure was measured in the usual way, i.e. a 

 mercurial manometer was connected with the carotid artery. 

 A second manometer was then connected with the branch of 

 the pulmonary artery distributed to the lower lobe of the left 

 lung. All the observations were made on dogs. 



Before considering the results obtained by excitation of the 

 tipper dorsal nerves, it is necessary to know what effect a given 

 rise of aortic pressure will have on the pulmonary pressure. This 

 ■was determined by the three following methods : — 



L Excitation of the peripheral end of a divided splanchnic. 



II. Excitation of the lower end of the spinal cord divided in 

 the middle of the dorsal region. 



III. Compression of the thoracic aorla. 



By all these methods an enormous rise in the systemic blood- 

 pressure is obtained, but the simultaneous pulmonary rise is 

 very small. Thus the aortic pressure may be doubled or even 

 •quadrupled. The rise of the pulmonary pressure is always 

 smili and sometimes absent. The rise, as a rule, is a'.)out one- 

 fifth of the total pulmonary pressure, i.e. the rise is then very 

 ^mall compared with the doubling or quadrupling of the systemic 

 pressure. The relative ratio of the pulmonary rise to the carotid 

 Tise is that the former is about one-twentieth of the latter. 

 Hence an enormous increase of systemic pressure is required 

 in order to cause even a small rise of pressure in the pulmonary 

 vessels. 



The same occurs when the aorta is compressed, no rise of 

 pulmonary pressure occurs unless the aortic rise is not only very 

 marked but also of some duration, e.q;. 30 seconds. 



Excitation of the central end of the sciatic causes but a very 

 •slight pulmonary rise. The central end of the vagus gives larger 

 effects, due to reflex contraction of the pulmonary arterioles, and 

 the central end of a posterior root of one of the upper dorsal 

 nerves gives still greater effects. 



If the vasomotor centre in the medulla be excited, a great rise 

 of both pulmonary and systemic pressure is produced. The same 

 ■excitation of the medulla after division of the cord in the mid- 

 ■dorsal region produces as great a pulmonary rise, but the 

 systemic effect is now quite small. 



Excitation of the upper dorsal roots, i.e. from the second to the 

 seventh, produces rises of pulmonary pressure as marked as any 

 of the preceding, but accompanied either by a small aortic rise 

 or by no aortic effect. With the third nerve a marked rise of 

 pulmonary pressure accompanied by a fall of aortic pressure is 

 seen. Hence these nerves contain the vaso-constrictor fibres 

 for the pulmonary vessels, since the effects produced on the 

 pulmonary pressure must be due to constriction of the pulmonary 

 ■arterioles, inasmuch as the simultaneous carotid effects are quite 

 incompetent to cause them. 



Finally, although it is undoubted from the results of the re- 

 search that the mammalian pulmonary vessels receive vasomotor 

 fibres, yet it is probable that this vasomotor mechanism is but 

 poorly developed when compared to that regulating the systemic 

 vessels. 



Geological Society, February 20.— Dr. W. T. Blanford, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The President announced that 

 a special general meeting, for the consideration of the by-laws, 

 would be called for Friday, March 15, at 4.30 p.m. — The follow- 

 ing communications were read : — On the Cotteswold, Midford, 

 and Yeovil Sands, and the division between Lias and Oolite, by 

 S. S. Buckman. After giving a short sketch of the work and 

 opinions of other writers, the author proceeded with the evidence 

 on which his own views are based. He described a series of 

 sections of the typical exposures of "sands" and contiguous 

 strata, commencing near Stroud and terminating on the Dorset 

 ■coast. Dividing the series into seven horizons, characterized by 

 their distinctive Ammonites, viz. Amm. communis, variabilis, 

 striatulus, dispansus, the genus Dumortieria, Amm. Moord, 

 and opalinus, and taking the striatulus beds as a fixed starting- 



point, the author demonstrated how the strata varied in regard 

 to that horizon. The Cotteswold Sands, containing the varia- 

 bilis and part of the communis horizons, were below the 

 striatulus beds ; the Midford Sands, containing the dispansus 

 horizon, were above, Gramm. strialulum occupying a thin bed 

 at the base ; the Yeovil Sands, containing the Moorci and 

 Dumortieria horizons, overlay a bed c mtainin^ Ammonites of 

 the dispansus horizon, and were consequently still later deposits. 

 Since the different s.mds were depo;ited not on a horizontal 

 plane, in point of time, but, as it were, obliquely, the deposit of 

 Cotteswold Sands having ceased before that of Yeovil Sands 

 commenced, it was incorrect to lump all the "sands " from the 

 Cotteswolds to the Dorset coast under the single local name 

 " Midford Sands," thereby implying a contemporaneity which 

 did not exist, while the use of the present restricted local names 

 was defended. The Ammonites were apparently uninfluenced 

 by changes in the character of the deposit, since the same species 

 are found in Limestone in the Cotteswolds, in Sands at Midford, 

 and in argillaceous Marl at Ilminster. The change from argil- 

 laceous to arenaceous or calcareous deposits has been looked 

 upon as so distinct a feature, that it has been utilized as a great 

 argument in favour of drawing the line between Lias and Oolite 

 at that point ; but if this be done, the line is always drawn at 

 different horizons in diffei-ent districts. If lithology furnishes 

 no reason for a dividing-line at this point, it was shown that 

 neither did palseontology. It was also shown that the Ammonite 

 family Hildoceratidse dominated the period from the falcifer to 

 the concavus zones, and that with the close of the latter zone 

 they died out with singular abruptness, and that, furthermore, 

 there exists, both in England and upon the Continent, a marked 

 hiatus at the same point due to the absence of a zone or a 

 number of zones. On account of these facts the proposal was 

 put forward that d'Orbigny's term " Toarcien " should be em- 

 ployed to designate the strata fron the falcifer zone to the con- 

 cavus zone inclusive, that this term should not be used in the 

 sense of merely an extended " Upper Lias," but to mark an 

 entirely distinct transition-formation — a definite part of the 

 Jurassic period — separating the typical Lias from the mass of 

 thoroughly Oolitic strata. The reading of the paper was 

 followed by a discussion, in which the President, Mr. H. B. 

 Woodward, Prof Blake, Rev. H. H. Winwood, and Mr. 

 Hudleston, took part. — On some nodular felstones of the Lleyn 

 Peninsula, by Miss Cathei-ine A. Raisin. Communicated by 

 Prof. T. G. Bonney. Some remarks on the paper were made 

 by Mr. Cole, Dr. Hicks, and Prof. Bjnney. — ^On the action of 

 pure water, and of water saturated with carbonic acid gas, on 

 the minerals of the mica family, by Alexander Johnstone. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, March 4. — M. Des Cloizeaux, Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — Remarks accompanying the presentation 

 of a work entitled " Introduction a I'etude de la Chimie des 

 anciens et du moyen age," by M. Berthelot. This work forms 

 a sequel to the author's " Origines de I'Alchimie " and " Collec- 

 tion des anciens Alchimistes grecs," thus completing a series of 

 historical researches which fully establish the true character of 

 the old philosophic doctrines, methods, and practices, which 

 were hitherto supposed to be mainly absurd and fanciful, but 

 which must henceforth enter into the scheme of historical evolu- 

 tion of the positive sciences. Here M. Berthelot gives a full 

 description and translation of the Leyden paiiyrus of Egyptian 

 origin, the oldest extant treatise on chemistry. The signs, 

 notations, and appliances of the ancient alchemists are also 

 described and reproduced by the photogravure process. — On the 

 artificial reproduction of halos and parhelic circles, by M. A. 

 Cornu. The author obtains the halos more effectively than by 

 Brewster's method, by depositing on a sheet of glass a crystalline 

 powder of potash alum, which is obtained from a heated 

 saturated solution shaken while cooling. The phenomenon is 

 sufficiently bright to be projected and rendered visible to an 

 audience. This remark applies also to the parhelic circles, 

 which are obtained by an extremely simple process.— On the 

 chondroid plaques in the tendons of birds, by M, L. Ranvier. 

 By employing a solution of osmic acid, the author shows that 

 the chondroid plaques in the tendons of the feet of finches and 

 other small birds contain cellules filled with a fatty substance. 

 By means of other reagents the presence is also revealed of 

 glycogen and cartilage. — On the great storm of March 11, 12, 

 and 13, i8S8,- in the United States, by M. H. Faye. Lieut. 

 George Dyer's monograph on this terrific hurricance with its 

 accompanying blizzard describesit asof an exceptional character, 



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