September 6, 1^94] 



NA TURE 



46) 



muscular rhythm of voluntary tetanus in man. The muscle 

 thrill during contraction was ascertained by recording the con- 

 tinuous contraction in a great variety of ways, as well as by 

 ascertaining through a suitable telephone and microphone the 

 muscle note. The observations confirmed in the main those of 

 Schafer and of Griffith, and indicated that the thrill was due to 

 a muscle vibration, the rate of which varied from to to 15 in the 

 second, with an average of about 12 or 13 vibrations. 



Prof Allen gave a short demonstration of mirror writing. 

 Prof. McKendrick showed a phonograph, and demonstrated 

 some of its effects to the audience. lie explained the working 

 of the instrument and the means by which he was now 

 endeavouring to adapt it for such physiological investigations as 

 those connected with the nature of the vowel and consonant 

 sounds, and those in which it was desirable to obtain a perma- 

 nent record of the cardiac and respiratory sounds. He then 

 showed a new model, constructed by himself, to illustrate a 

 possible mode in which the essential .structures of the basilar 

 membrane of the cochlea might be supposed to respond to com- 

 pound tonei. The model consisted of a glass bo.\ containing 

 two cavities separated by a horizontal membrane and filled with 

 liquid, the box communicating with the exterior by two aper- 

 tures covered by membrane analogous to the fenestrte ovalis and 

 rotunda. Two pistons rested by their bases on the horizontal 

 membrane, and could be arranged of such size and weight that 

 their periods of vibration should be as I : 2. In this scheme it 

 was shown that in accordance with the rate of vibruiion com- 

 municated to the liquid the two pistons responded in variable 

 amounts, thus analysing the wave in the liquid. 



Prof. Gaule showed microscopic specimens and slides illus- 

 trating the remarkable changes observed by himself as following 

 the section in the rabbit of the in''erior cervical sympathetic 

 ganglion or its branches. After a definite lesion these changes 

 were found to be localised in particular muscles and special parts 

 ol the nervous system. Thus he found that after section of one 

 branch of the ganglion the observed changes occurred in the 

 rami communicantes, the lower cervical spinal cord, the anterior 

 roots of the brachial plexus, and the biceps muscle of the fore- 

 limb. He considered that the changes indicated trophic 

 disturbances in the affected parts due to the lesion, and showed 

 muscles in which the substance had suffered at various points 

 the alteration in question. 



Prof. Haycraft described an extensive research which he had 

 made upon the development of the kidney, and showed a ia-ge 

 number of micro-photographs to illustrate his remarks. The 

 examination of continuous series of sections through this organ 

 in different stages of its early growth, had convinced him that 

 both the glomerular and tufiular portions of the gland substance 

 were formed as ingrowths from the same epithelium, viz. that 

 lining the genito urinary canal. The view thus advanced as to 

 the development of the kidney makes it analogous to that of 

 other glands in opposition to former opinions. 



/Wi/aj/.-^The Section commenced with the opening address 

 of its President, Prof. Schafer. This was followed by a 

 communication by Prof Heger, on the unequal diflusion of 

 poisons into the organs of the body. In this paper an account 

 was given of some of the chief means by which the organism 

 was continually struggling against toxic substances, the principal 

 objects to be effected being either the elimination of the un- 

 altered poison, its neutralisation, or its destruction. The 

 neutralisation might be either a true chemical co'iibination, as 

 in the case of C0„, or a physical localisation in some special 

 'fgans which could endure this excess, and so remove it from 

 tile rest of the organism. Thus morphine, if given in a series 

 of increasing doses, accumulated in the liver, spleen, and 

 marrow of the bones. In the case of microbic poisoning. Prof. 

 Heger, whilst admitting that the constant multiplication of the 

 microbes necessitated the destruction ol the poison by phago- 

 cytosis, &c., pointed out that some such process of neutrali- 

 sation .as that just referred to was not only a possible but a 

 probable antecedent to this destruction. Thus the liver cells 

 and their secretion or extract appeared to have exceptional 

 antitoxic properties. Experiments were quoted which showed 

 the extent to which the frog's liver could not only retain and 

 digest such poisons as hyoscyamine, but actually utilise the 

 products derived from them as a food supply for the organ. 



Mr. Hurst explained a new hypothesis as to the mode in 

 which he conceived the organ of Corti and adjacent struc- 

 tures might be supposed to be alTected by such alterations of 

 pressure in the endolyiuph as must be producel by sound 



NO. 1297, VOL. 50] 



Prof. Schafer showed photographs to illustrate a research 

 made by Dr. Oliver and himself as to the functions of the 

 suprarenal bodies. The photographs were chiefly those of 

 tracings indicating the blood pressure, the heart beats, and the 

 volume of the blood-vessels in such localised parts as a limb or 

 the kidney. The injection of suprarenal extract was seen to 

 cause a great rise of blood pressure, due not to any modification 

 in the heart beat, but to the constriction of the blood-vessels, 

 this constriction being dependent upon the integrity of the 

 central nervous system. 



Prof. Rutherford showed the result of an extensive series of 

 observations in which the reaction time was measured for sight, 

 hearing, and touch. The stimulus for the ear was the response 

 of a telephone to a current, that for the eye the movement of 

 an electro-magnetic signal, and that for the touch an induction 

 current sent through the skin ; the stimulus in all cases being 

 niade by the closure of a circuit. The response of the indi- 

 vidual was the break of a current sent through a suitable electro- 

 magnetic recording arrangement. By means of the pendulum a 

 large series of records were obtained, in which as the initial 

 starting-point occurred always at one place, and the different 

 observations were arranged in series beneath one another, a 

 comparison between different reaction times was rendered very 

 conspicuous. He found that with eight intelligent men of ages 

 varying from 19 to 62, the time for sight varied from (W to ^^, 

 second, for hearing, ,',,'„ to ,';,-',,, for touch, ,V,, to tV;-,-. Tne 

 shortest reaction limes were obtained when the response was 

 that of the hand on the same side of the body as the ear or 

 cheek which was stimulated. 



Mr. D'.-\.rcy Power showed a series of preparations of the 

 conjunctival and vaginal mucous membranes taken from rabbits 

 and guinea-pigs which had been subjected to mechanical and 

 chemical irritation. Many of the epithelial cells presented 

 appearances which were identical with those described as being 

 parasitic when they were met with in cancer. The changes in 

 the epithelium were summarised as a general vacuolation of 

 cells ; various forms of intracellular ceiema ; epithelial 

 "pearls," collections of leucocytes, and the spaces left after 

 these leucocytes had migrated. The series of preparations 

 shown on the present occasion indicated that many squamous 

 epithelial cells had the pDwerof ph.-igocytosis, for in no other 

 way could the remirkable intracellular appearances be explained; 

 cells were shown containing a leucocyte, and others contain- 

 ing a microcyte. Partial necrosis of the cell also took place as 

 a result of irritation, and there was an invasion of large 

 eosinophile cells into the conjunctival epithelium. 



Saturday. — Prof. Hermann gave a most interesting com- 

 munication upon the production of vowel and consonant sounds. 

 His investigations were made by means ol the phonograph, the 

 excursions of the stylus being magnified, for which purpose a 

 small mirror was attached to this part, and the character of its 

 movement recorded by photographing the ledection in the 

 mirror of a beam of light. Observations were also made in 

 which a special telephone was introduced, thus rendering the 

 excursions still larger. Numerous photographic records of 

 various vowel and consonant sounds were exhibited, and each 

 was seen to produce its own characteristic tracing. .A matter of 

 much theoretical interest in connection with the previous work 

 of Helmholtz and others, was the character of the tracing when 

 the same vowel sound was sounded in notes of different inten- 

 sity but of similar pilch, or vice vers,!. 



Prof, Kredericq showed a new aerotonometer and gas pipet:e, 

 which he had made in order to investigate the causation of the 

 gaseous interchange between the blood and air of the luni-s. 

 By means of this apparatus the tension of the gases in these two 

 media had been ascertained, and the results were laid before ihe 

 Section. These furnished, in the author's opinion, material for 

 criticising the view advanced by Prof. Bohr, that, as the O.xygen 

 tension in the circulating blood often exceeded, whilst the (iO» 

 tension fell short of, that in the pulmon.iry air, the interchange 

 could not be brought about in accordance solely with the laws 

 of diffusion, but must be largely modified by the special vital 

 activity of the lung epithelium Prof. Fredericq's observations 

 led him to believe that the data upon which B..hr's conclusions 

 were founded, might be more or less incomplete owing to the 

 time allowed for the contact between the blood and the air of 

 the aerotonometer being too short in Bohr's apparatus for the 

 correct determination of the tension of the O and CO., in that 

 liquid. Fredericq's apparatus allowed of a long time, two 

 hours, for the determination, and he had never obtained as low 

 a tension of CO.j, nor as high a tension of O, in the blood as 



