500 



NATURE 



{March 21, 1889 



hymns to the weapons of Indra, that animal bones were used 

 among the early peoples of the East for purposes of offence and 

 defence. — Continuation of Dr. Seeland's notes on Kashgaria and 

 the passes of the Tian-shan. The author's description of the 

 city of Kashgar, which lies on an extensive elevated plateau 

 3750 feet above the level of the sea, shows that the spot de- 

 scribed in such glowing terms by Marco Polo is now nothing 

 more than a confused network of foul, narrow, and tortuous 

 streets, the houses of which lack every requirement of comfort, 

 and almost of decency, as judged by our notions. The dwellings 

 of the richer people have indeed large gardens filled with 

 luxuriant fruit-trees, but the modern traveller would seek in vain 

 for the shady groves, sparkling fountains, splendid mosques, 

 spacious baths, rich bazaars, and lovely women, spoken of by 

 the old Venetian writer. The ethnic type of the Kashgarians is 

 clearly that of a deteriorated mixed race, in which the original 

 Aryan or Turkish character has been nearly obliterated by 

 repeated admixture with different Mongol races. The Chinese 

 officials, under whose rule the people have long languished, 

 effectually prevent all improvement in the country or the people, 

 as is sutificiently shown by Dr. Seeland's account of the mode in 

 which they govern this once fertile region. Indeed, nothing 

 can be more deplorable than the account given of the personal 

 appearance, character, and sociology of the Kashgarians, who 

 exhibit the most marked slovenliness and incapacity, with a 

 melancholy and passive temperament ; and whcse only pleasures 

 are derived from an excessive abuse of narcotics, accompanied 

 by a marked degree of sexual depravity, which they have possi- 

 bly acquired through their intimate association with the Chinese. 

 It fact, honesty seems to be the only virtue left to the 

 Kashgarian. The account given by the author of the effect 

 of Chinese rule in this part of Asia Minor agrees with 

 the views of the late M. Prjevalsky, and certainly seems 

 to warrant the conviction cherished by these travellers that 

 the only apparent chance of ameliorating the condition of 

 the people would depend upon the annexation of Kashgaria to 

 the Russian Empire. — The race of Lagoa Santa 'of Brazil, by 

 Dr. Soren Hansen. The bones found by M. Lund in the caves 

 of Lagoa Santa were mostly deposited in one of these numerous 

 recesses. These human remains were not associated with any 

 animal bones, from which it could be determined with absolute 

 certainty whether they were contemporaneous with a Tertiary or 

 a Quaternary fauna, while the absence of every kind of implement 

 left the antiquity of the race equally uncertain. These remains, 

 which include fifteen more or less entire skulls, besides a very 

 large number of bone fragments belonging to persons of all ages, 

 are preserved in the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen. All the 

 crania present remarkable uniformity with two skulls, respec- 

 tively preserved in the British Museum and at Rio, which have 

 been referred by M. Quatrefages to a Papuan type, and they 

 appear to give support to his opinion of the existence over the 

 greater part of South America of a primitive dolichocephalic 

 race, which was subsequently intermingled with peoples pre- 

 senting a brachycephalic character. 



Notes from the Ley den Museum, vol. xi. No. i, January 1889, 

 contains twenty articles, chiefly descriptions of new genera and 

 species of insects. The more important entomologicil papers 

 are : Dytiscidte et Gyrinidae nouveaux ou rares, par M. Regim- 

 bart ; Neue Coleopteren, beschrieben von E. Reilter ; and a 

 note on Macronota apicalis, G. and P., by J. R. H. Neervoort 

 van de Poll. — There are two interesting papers by Dr. R. Horst, 

 on a remarkable Syllis bud, with extrudible segmental organs 

 (plate i) ; and contributions towards a knowledge of the 

 Annelida Polychasta (plate 2). This latter note, treats about the 

 species of the genus Arenicola found at Naples: these are A. 

 claparedi, Levinsen, possibly peculiar to the Mediterranean, but 

 should l)e lo iked for on our southern coasts ; A. cristata, Stimp- 

 son, originally described from South Carolina, but now found at 

 Naples ; A. grubii, Claparede, very common in the Gulf of 

 Naples. — Dr. V. A. Jentink gives notes on a collection of 

 mammals from East Sumatra, based on the collections made by 

 Dr. B. Hagen. The orangutan is to be found along the coasts 

 of the northern half of East and West Sumatra, and among the 

 other mammals, hitherto not recorded from Sumatra, though 

 known to occur in Borneo, are Arclogale stiqmatica, Hemigalea 

 derbyana, Herpestes brachyurus, Cynogale bennetti, Ptilocerctis 

 loivii, and Rhizomys deJzan. — Mr. J. Biittikofer gives notes on a 

 new collection of birds from South-Western Africa (plate 4). 

 The collection was made at Gambos, in the Upper Cunene 

 region ; it contained 267 skins, representing 103 species, of which 



number 49 were not mentioned in Mr. Biittikofer's previous list ; 

 two species are new, Lophocercs alhoterminatus and Fi ancolinus 

 jugularis. 



The longer papers in the Ntiovo Giornale Botanico Italiano 

 for January are almost entirely floristic, relating to the phanero- 

 gamic or cryptogamic flora of particular districts of Italy. — 

 Signor G. Arcangeli describes a remarkable monstrosity of 

 Narcissus Tazzctta, in which the "corona" is divided into six 

 petaloid leaves. — In the Reports of the meetings of the Societa 

 Botanica Italiana, the same botanist follows up his account of the 

 structure of the seed of Euryale ferox by a description of those of 

 our common water-lilies, Nympha:aalbaz.\\(S.Nupharhitcum. They 

 all agree in the occurrence of a scanty endosperm, consisting of 

 from one to four layers of cells, and a very copious perisperm. — 

 Signor K. Pirotta describes the mode of fertilization oi Amorpho- 

 phalliis Rivieri, which is effected almost entirely by a number of 

 different species of Coleoptera. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, November 15, 1888. — "Observations uport 

 the Electromotive Changes in the Mammalian Spinal Cord 

 following Electrical Excitation of the Cortex Cerebri. Prelimin- 

 ary Notice." By Francis Gotch, Hon. M.A. Oxon., B.A., B.Sc. 

 Lond., and Victor Horsley, B.S., F. R. S., Professor of Patho- 

 logy, University College, London. (From the Physiological 

 Laboratory of the University of Oxford.) 



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 pathological states, neoplasms, inflamma- 

 tion, &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 investigations have up to the 

 present succeeded in determining the characters of the neural 

 disturbance only when this has reached the peripheral termina- 

 tions of the efferent nerves. Now since the excitatory processes 

 originating in the cortex are conducted by the efferent channels 

 in the spinal cord, presumably the pyramidal tracts, the problem 

 of their relationship to the centres of the bulbo-spinal system 

 cannot be determined by experiments which record the mechani- 

 cal changes in the muscles. In order to ascertain what share 

 respectively the centres in the cortex and those in the spinal cord 

 have in the production of the characteristic epileptic sequence, 

 the action of the latter must be eliminated. This can be done 

 by investigating the nature of the excitatory processes in the cord 

 when the efferent channels in the dorsal region for the lower 

 limbs are made the subject of observation. 



For this purpose we determined to obtain, if possible, evidence 

 as to the nature of the excitatory processes of the epileptic con- 

 vulsion in the spinal cord, as shown liy "tapping" the cord and 

 noting the electromotive changes which, as is well known, 

 accompany functional activity in nerves. The results we have 

 already obtained are so harmonious and demonstrative, that we 

 venture to make this preliminary communication, reserving full 

 details for a subsequent account. 



Part I. The Electromotive Change folloiviiig a Single Excitation 

 of the Mammalian Nerve. 

 Our first experiments were made for the purpose of ascertaining 

 to what extent we could detect an electromotive change follow- 

 ing a single excitation of a mammalian nerve. .Since the dis- 

 covery by du Bois-Keymond of the fact that the excitatory 

 process in nerve is accompanied by an electromotive change, the 

 characters and time relations of this change have been investigated 

 by various observers, notably by Bernstein, Hermann, Hering, 

 and Head. The general result of their observations is to show 

 that the change following a single stimulus is of very short dura- 

 tion, so short that the galvanometer gives little evidence of its 

 presence, and the observers referred to were compelled to adopt 

 the device first employed by Bernstein, which involves repeated 

 excitation and consequent summation of effect, a method well 

 known to physiologists as that of the repealing differential rheo- 

 tome. For our purpose it was essential to obtain evidence of 

 the effect following one :.^timulus only, and this we were fortu- 

 nately able to do by using a sensitive Lippmann's capillary 

 electrometer of quick reaction, made by Mr. G. F. Burch, and 



