September 15, 1898] 



NATURE 



481 



THE TRIENNIAL INTERNATIONAL CON- 

 GRESS OF PHYSIOLOGISTS. 



Fourth Meeting. 



'T'HE fourth Triennial International Congress of Physiologists, 

 ■*• held at Cambridge on August 23-27, was the largest assembly 

 of the kind that has yet met. The third congress (Bern, i895)de- 

 fined the qualification for membership as " open to (l) professors 

 and lecturers on physiology and their official assistants ; (2) to 

 members of the American Physiological Society ; the Physi- 

 ological Society, England ; Societe de Biologic, Paris ; Physi- 

 ologische Gesellschaft, Berlin ; Physiologisches Club, Vienna ; 

 (3) to ladies and gentlemen proposed by their National Com- 

 mittee, and accepted by the International Congress Committee." 

 This rule was strictly observed for the present congress, and the 

 number of members attending was two hundred and twenty-six. 

 The press were not officially admitted to the meetings. The 

 different nationalities represented were as follows : — Austria- 

 Hungary and Germany, 33 members ; Belgium, 9 ; Denmark 

 and Sweden, 3 ; Egypt, 2 ; France, 29 ; Holland, 3 ; India, 2 ; 

 Italy, 9 ; Japan, 4 ; Roumania, 2 ; Russia, 7 ; Switzerland, 9 ; 

 United States, 16 ; Great Britain and Canada, 98. 



A larger number of communications were received than on 

 any previous occasion, and it became difficult to transact the 

 business in the allotted time. The rule awarding preference to 

 communications illustrated by experiment was adhered to, and 

 the meetings were as free from mere verbal or pictorial exposition 

 as on any previous occasion. 



The official work of the congress commenced on the morning 

 of August 23 at 10 o'clock, with a few pithy words of welcome 

 and direction from the President, Prof. Michael Foster, Sec. R.S. 

 Prof. E. J. Marey (Paris) urged the necessity of creating an 

 international committee for the unification and the control of 

 physiological instruments employed for graphic rtiethods. The 

 following were appointed to setve: E. J. Marey, Paris; M. 

 Foster, Cambridge ; H. Kronecker, Bern; K. Hiierthle, 

 Breslau ; V. Frey, ZUrich ; E. Weiss, Paris ; H. Bowditch, 

 Boston. 



Prof. Mosso (Turin) made a communication regarding 

 mountain sickness. Mountain sickness, in his opinion, does 

 not depend on diminution of the tension of the atmospheric 

 oxygen, but on diminution of the carbon dioxide of the arterial 

 blood. 



Prof. A. Kossel (Marburg) communicated an important paper 

 upon albumens. Starting from the probability that a prota- 

 mine-like group of atoms is contained in the proteid molecule, 

 and that from it by decomposition the hexon-bases arginin 

 C6H14N4O2, histidin CgHgNjOa, lysin CgHi^N.^Oo arise, he with 

 Dr. Kutscher had sought for arginin and histidin in various 

 proreids and quantitatively determined them. They had found 

 the hexon-bases obtainable from all the proteid substances they 

 had as yet examined, also from elastin. The amounts obtain- 

 able from the various bodies were very different ; the largest 

 proportion was obtainable from histon, the smallest from 

 elastin ; an intermediate proportion was yielded by casein and 

 egg albumen. 



Dr. J. Demoor (Brussels) gave an interesting demonstration 

 and account of his researches upon the association centres and 

 the cerebral localisation of the dog. He then proceeded to 

 describe the changes found by Prof. Heger and himself in the 

 form of the neurons of the cortex cerebri under various con- 

 ditions of rest and excitation. In animals decapitated in sleep 

 produced by ether, chloroform, morphia, cic, the cell-body of 

 the neuron is retracted, the dendrites are moniliform, and the 

 distribution of the spine-like appendages is irregular and in 

 some places they are wanting. The altered neurons recover 

 their normal aspect after elimination of the modifying agent. 



Dr. J. Demoor then gave a statement of his views of the 

 signification of the moniliform condition of the cortical neuron. 

 He drew attention to the similarity between this condition of 

 the brain-cells and that of the pseudopodia of certain of the 

 protozoa. He concludes that the nerve-cell is plastic, and 

 that the moniliform condition of its processes is a condition of 

 contraction. 



Dr. H. Wright (Montreal) contributed the account of recent 

 observations on the effects produced on the microscopical 

 appearance of the nerve-cell by the action of ether and of 

 chloroform. 



NO. 1507, VOL. 58] 



Prof. H. Hamburger (Utrecht) gave an account of his con- 

 tinued work on the influence of solutions of inorganic salts on 

 the volume of animal cells. He finds that white blood- 

 corpuscles and spermatozoa increa.se in volume when placed in 

 hypisotonic, and shrink when set in hyperisotonic solutions. 

 The volumetric proportion of the two component parts of the 

 cell, its framework and the intracellular fluid, can be accurately 

 ascertained. 



Prof. Kronecker (Bern) communicated for himself and Mile. 

 Schilina the results of a comparison instituted between Ludwig's 

 kymograph and Iliierthle's tonograph. 



Prof. Kronecker, for himself and Mile. Devine, reported the 

 results of further investigation of the respiration of the heart of 

 the tortoise. Blood free from or very poor in oxygen (saturated 

 with H or CO) serves to nourish the perfused tortoise heart just 

 as well, to judge by the pulse-volume, as does arterial blood. 

 Blood saturated with COo quickly reduces the performance of 

 the heart. 



Prof. Bowditch (Harvard, Boston, U.S.A.) demonstrated an 

 ingenious apparatus for elucidating the movements of the human 

 eye-ball. Even on the small scale on which the mechanism ex- 

 hibited had been executed he succeeded in making clear his 

 demonstration to the whole audience in the large theatre. 



Dr. L. Asher(Bern) gave a communication, illustrated by ex- 

 periment, on the theory of lymph production. He defended the 

 thesis that lymph is a product of the work of the organs, no 

 mere filtrate from the blood, and no mere secretion from the 

 cells of the walls of the blood-vessels. The specific activity of 

 the salivary glands, of the thyroid, and of the digestive organs, 

 each and all occasion increased formation of lymph. 



By Dr. W. M. BaylLss (London) a demonstration was given 

 to show the non-antagonism of visceral and cutaneous vascular 

 reflexes. 



A canula in the carotid artery of a curarised rabbit is 

 connected to an ordinary mercurial manometer, and also, by 

 means of a side-tube, to a wide glass tube dipping under 

 mercury contained ;in a tall cylinder ; the depth at which the 

 end of the tube is situated under the mercury is adjusted so that 

 blood just begins to escape. The leg is enclosed in a plethysmo- 

 graph, and its alteration of volume traced by means of a piston 

 recorder. If now the central end of the anterior crural, or other 

 sensory nerve, is excited, the arterial blood pressure is prevented 

 from rising by the escape which takes place from the tube under 

 mercury, so that there is no opposing force to be overcome by 

 the vessels of the leg in constricting, and accordingly the volume 

 of the leg is seen to diminish. In asphyxia a similar constriction 

 occurs. 



Mr. W. M. Fletcher (Cambridge) showed the apparatus and 

 methods employed by him in his investigation on the CO.j dis- 

 charge of excised tissues. 



The titrations are performed in closed absorption chambers, 

 and the necessary stirring and expulsion of the solutions are 

 effected without contamination by atmospheric air. A re- 

 duplication of the apparatus allows an absorption of CO^ to 

 proceed in one part while estimation of that previously absorbed 

 is conducted in the other, so that a given discharge of COj may 

 be kept under continuous observation. 



The method has been used in following the survival respira- 

 tion of excised tissues — mainly the leg muscles of the frog, the 

 tortoise heart and some non-muscular tissues ; and it has been 

 found very suitable for the study of the respiration of insects. 



Dr. Leonard Hill (London) brought forward interesting new 

 experiments in pursuance of his well-known investigation of the 

 influence of gravity of the circulation of the blood. 



An eel or grass-snake is affixed to a board in the extended 

 position, and the heart exposed. On turning either animal 

 into the vertical position (tail downwards) the heart, after a few 

 beats, becomes emptied of blood. On pressing the body from 

 the tail upwards the heart immediately fills to repletion. On 

 ceasing to compress the body the heart once more as com- 

 pletely empties. So .soon as the animal is placed head down- 

 wards the heart engorges. This engorgement is limited by the 

 inextensile pericardium, which in the eel is extremely strong. 

 If a snake or eel be sunk vertically and tail downwards in a 

 vessel of water the heart does not empty. The hydrostatic 

 pressure of the column of water exerted on the surface of the 

 body tends to counterbalance the hydrostatic pressure of the 

 column of blood within the body. A chloralised tame rabbit 

 is placed in the vertical position with the feet downwards. 



