442 



NA TURE 



[March 9, 1905 



ducts on the blood-pressure of animals and man, and 

 on the improvement of blood-pressure apparatus for 

 physiological and clinical observation on man. He 

 will shortly also be engaged with Dr. Samuel Rideal 

 in investigating the influence of various gases on the 

 blood-pressure in man. Some of this work has already 

 found expression in this term's course of lectures bv 

 Sir Lauder Brunton. Mr. G. P. Mudge is engaged 

 in work which will bear on the theory of transmission 

 of acquired characters. The laboratorv is, in fact, not 

 only a consistent school making its influence rapidlv 

 felt in work of a particular character, but also a 

 laboratory offering highly appreciated advantages to 

 independent workers. 



The laboratory owes no small share of the fact 

 of its existence and present energetic life to the 

 director, Dr. Augustus Waller. His prescience and 

 alertness, and the confidence felt by the authorities 

 and by his colleagues and friends in' a scheme which 

 had obviously enchained the full measure of his 

 personal interest, must in this connection remain 

 accountable for many things. The value of his services 

 is best assessed after a consideration of the inde- 

 fatigable years which he has spent in fruitful 

 furtherance of the science of physiologv. His first 

 paper, a contribution to the study of cardiac and vas- 

 cular innervation, was published from Ludwig's 

 laboratory in 187S. His remaining contributions, 

 many and all well known, have been published as 

 a consequence of work carried out within London 

 itself; and with the scientific life of this city 

 Dr. ^yaller has been identified since 1879. "The 

 graphic record of the propagation rate of the pulse 

 wave," "The recurrent pulse," "Measurements of 

 the length of systole and diastole with different pulse 

 frequencies," are titles of some of these earlier 

 papers, reminding us of our indebtedness to Dr. 

 Waller for valuable contributions to our knowledge 

 of the circulation. In 188 1 he secured the thanks 

 of all workers upon the phenomena of the central 

 nervous system by his contributions to the study of 

 tendon-reflex. In iSSi he devised and first made' use 

 of the method, now generallv adopted, for the photo- 

 graphic record of electrical currents. His work upon 

 electrotonic currents in the nerves of the human body, 

 carried out with the assistance of Dr. De \\'atteviire, 

 1SS2, forms one of the foundation-stones of the art 

 of electro-therapeutics. This and his subsequent 

 record of the electrical changes accompanying the 

 beat of the human heart, 1S87, serve to re'nder the 

 hrst decade of Dr. Waller's experimental work ever 

 memorable in the annals of " .\nimal Electricit}', " 

 and were made the basis of two ceremonies ' of 

 mutual honour. Dr. Waller was invited to Berlin 

 by Du Bois-Reymond to demonstrate the electrical 

 changes due to the heart-beat, and the Academv of 

 Science at Bologna— the birthplace of animal 'elec- 

 tricity—presented him with the award of the Premio 

 .Aldini sul Galvanismo. The Academv of Science of 

 Pans also showed its recognition of 'the interest of 

 these observations bv its award of the Prix Montvon 

 ^ In 1885, Dr. Waller laid a basis for the study of 



fatigue," by recording his discoverv of the site of 

 peripheral fatigue. He again facilitated the studv of 

 mis phenomenon by the invention and use of 'the 

 " dynamograph," and contributed important papers 

 upon the "Sense of Effort." In these papers Dr. 

 Waller dealt with matters on the border-line between 

 physiology and psychology, and here also is placed 

 other work of his of admitted importance upon 

 colour contrast, hearing, weight discrimination, the 

 functional attributes of the cerebral cortex. In 189 1, 

 Dr. Waller published his " Text-book of Human 

 Physiology." This book marked an era in the 

 methods of physiology classes throughout the 

 NO. 1845, VOL. 71] 



country, and served as a standard for the increased 

 extent of scientific training rendered possible bv the 

 changes then taking place in physiological staffs and 

 laboratories. In writing this book Dr. Waller 

 rendered an important service not onlv to ))hysiologv 

 but also to medical education. 



In 1895 began a series of researches based on the 

 Wcber-Fechner law, the electrical response of the 

 retina to the stimulus of light, the mechanical re- 

 sponse of muscle to electrical stimulation, the electrical 

 response of niedullated nerve to electrical stimulation, 

 leading to the general conclusion that where we can 

 plot physical cause along an abscissa, and physio- 

 logical effect along ordinates, an S-shaped curve is the 

 result. 



The foregoing experiments involved an examination 

 of the electrical response o^ nerve under the influence 

 of anjesthetics, and led to the systematic employment 

 of nerve to gauge the activity of a large number of 

 reagents, a method having been devised for exciting 

 the nerve at regular intervals and recording its nega- 

 tive variation by photography. 



Three mainly important conclusions resulted from 

 this method of work — that CO, is evolved in nerve 

 during tetanisation, that the inexhaustibility of nerve 

 and retina is due to an extremely rapid disintegration 

 and reintegration in their tissues, that the effect of 

 auEesthetics on nerve may be taken as a measure of 

 their effect on the human subject, and the method may 

 therefore be employed for studying the limits of safety 

 of chloroform dosage. The important fact was educed 

 that safe anaesthesia requires the continuous adminis- 

 tration of a mi.xture of chloroform and air at an 

 average percentage of 1-5 — not below i per loo and not 

 above 2 per 100. Many of the facts of physiological 

 interest made known by these researches are to be 

 found in a course of lectures delivered by Dr. Waller 

 at the Royal Institution, and published in 1897 under 

 the title of " .\nimal Electricity." Short, and freed 

 from technicalities as it is. this book is unique and 

 permanent, and, as a classic, needs no commendation. 

 The "Characteristic of Xerve," " \'eratrine and 

 Protoveratrine," are titles of other papers of physical 

 and physiological interest. 



From a study of the electrical response of the e\'e- 

 ball (retina) to the admission and exclusion of light 

 Dr. Waller passed to a consideration of its response 

 to electrical stimulation. This very marked and 

 vigorous response he named the retinal blaze, and this 

 led to a general study of the " blaze-currents " of tlie 

 eyeball and of other living plant and animal tissues ; 

 the importance of this phenomenon as an e.xact and 

 critical measure of the processes occurring in living 

 tissues can scarcely be overestimated. As a sign of 

 life, its observation {e.g. for vitality of seeds) may be 

 of practical advantage. 



Within recent years Dr. Waller's energies have also 

 been largely directed towards the problems connected 

 with chloroform ana.'sthesia, and the apparatus de- 

 signed and inspired by him promises to lead not only 

 to a further knowledge of the subject, but also to check 

 the lamentable waste of human life so often caused 

 by faulty and inaccurate methods of chloroform 

 administration. 



The little that has been said may serve to show 

 that in this Institution and its officers the University 

 has already much upon which it may be con- 

 gratulated. It is surprising to examine the financial 

 basis upon which this scheme has already been 

 carried to such a pitch of usefulness. When the 

 scheme was first mooted, in March, 1901, no funds 

 were available for its support. The only asset was 

 the promise made by the foremost physiologists in 

 London to deliver courses of lectures, without 

 emolument, upon the branches of physiology with 



