
Sept. 7, 1871 | 
NATURE 
363 

were made use of for embedding delicate pieces of tissue, 
such as leaves, in order to facilitate the cutting of thin 
sections. A few typical flowers (e.g., Campanula, Rosa, 
Viola, various Orchids) were next studied as examples 
of the kind of modification of parts exhibited by phane- 
rogamous plants, and also the female flowers of a small 
Conifer. Before proceeding to the animal kingdom, a 
lecture was devoted to a retrospect of the steps through 
which the class had passed from the simple to the more 
complex forms, a comparison of the various methods 
of reproduction, and an outline of the physiology of 
vegetable life. 
Ameoebz, the colourless corpuscles of the Triton’s 
blood, and the amoeboid particles of Spongilla, were the 
first examples of animal life studied, each member of the 
class making drawings of the various forms due to proto- 
plasmic movement presented by an individual example 
of each of these cases of simple organism whilst in the 
field of his microscope. The Gregarinz of the earth- 
worm next occupied a day, and every student was able to 
observe and draw the actively moving nucleated Gre- 
garina, its simple encysted condition, and its various 
stages of breaking up into pseudonavicule. 
The structure of Infusoria was next examined, as 
exemplified in Vorticella and Vaginicola, the nucleus, 
contractile vacuole, mouth, &c., being fairly observed and 
drawn by all the students. Specimens of Hydra 
were provided on the following day, and the endoderm 
and ectoderm, thread-cells and reproductive organs studied. 
To this followed a copious supply of Cordylophora la- 
custris (from the Victoria Docks), in which the class were 
able to study a typical compound Ccelenterate, and to 
recognise not only the male and female gonophors, but 
the larval “ planula-form” as it escaped from the repro- 
ductive capsules. Plumatella as a typical Bryozoon suc- 
ceeded this, and then two days were given to the dissec- 
tion and histology of Anodon, of which each student was 
provided with two or three specimens. The lobster as a 
typical Arthropod was then examined, a fresh specimen 
being supplied to each table ; the heart and vessels were 
first studied, then the alimentary canal, liver, reproductive 
organs, and green glands. A large piece of mill-board 
covered with paper was used by each pair of students for 
placing out in order, numbering, naming, and comparing 
the twenty somites and their appendages, an instructive 
preparation being thus made. The corresponding parts 
were again examined, and the microscopic structure of the 
muscular tissue, blood, liver, and gills, in specimens of the 
river cray-fish. The careful dissection of the frog next 
occupied some days, and to this succeeded the rabbit. 
Simultaneously with the dissection of these verte- 
brata, the study of the microscopic structure of the 
various tissues and organs was commenced, so that 
whilst one student was using the microscope, his com- 
panion at the table was dissecting, and wice versd. The 
blood of the frog and of man, the movements of the 
colourless corpuscles in both cases, and the action of acids 
on them, the varieties of epithelium, the various forms 
of connective tissue and its corpuscles, cartilage, bone, 
muscular tissue smooth and striped, nerve fibres and 
cells, the termination of nerve in muscle, and the struc- 
ture of the more important organs, were examined by the 
class, zo¢ in already prepared and mounted “ slides,” but 
in specimens which each student took for himself, 
usually from the animal under dissection, and treated 
with various reagents, the methods of cutting thin 
sections and embedding tissues in wax or paraffin 
being learnt at the same time. 
A simple injecting apparatus (formed by two Wolff’s 
bottles and a large vessel of water) was put up, and the 
method of injecting a frog shown to each student. The 
best part of a day was spent in a thorough dissection of a 
sheep’s heart, and another in the dissection of the sheep’s 
larynx, Vertical antero-posterior sections of the sheep’s 

head were supplied to the various tables, and in these 
the parts of the brain and cranial nerves (already made 
out in the rabbit), the tongue, the relations of the cavities 
of the mouth, nose, and ear, the ducts of the salivary 
glands, and the muscles of the eye, were studied. The 
structure of the eye was again examined by each student, 
in specimens of those of the bullock, supplied in quantity, 
and the internal ear and auditory ossicles were demon- 
strated in rough preparations of the sheep and rabbit. 
But little time could be afforded to Physiology ; and, in- 
deed, it was hardly possible that each member of the 
class should perform many physiological experiments for 
himself. The movements of the heart in the frog after 
excision, and the localisation of the nerve-centre, was 
made out by each student for himself; also the phenomena 
of reflex action in the frog after the destruction of the 
cranial portion of the cerebro-spinal nervous system. 
Again, each table was supplied with simple galvanic for- 
ceps, and the irritation of nerve and of mus¢le examined, 
also the action of chemical and mechanical stimuli on 
the nerve. The action of curare poison on the frog 
(Bernard’s experiment) was examined by every student, 
and the condition of the poisoned and the unpoisoned leg 
compared. Every member of the class was made familiar 
with the simplest way of demonstrating the circulation in 
the frog’s foot, tongue, and mesentery, under the micro- 
scope, and repeatedly examined the phenomenon for him- 
self. Rigor mortis and the artificial rigor produced by 
warm water were examined. The conversion of starch 
into sugar by the saliva, and the methods of proving the 
presence of starch and grape sugar, were made the sub- 
ject of experiment by every individual of the class. The 
peristaltic movements of the intestine and the absorption 
of the chyle by the lacteals were exhibited and closely 
examined. A model of the circulation, consisting of 
india-rubber tubes and pump, was used for demonstrating 
the nature of the pulse, the pressure (by means of 
manometers placed in connection) in the arteries and 
veins, and the effect of dilatation and contraction of the ca- 
pillaries and of rate of pulsation on this pressure. Finally, 
the thorax was opened in a narcotised rabbit, and the 
heart exposed, and each student satisfactorily witnessed 
the pulsations of that organ and the inhibitory effect of 
irritation of the vagus nerve ; the blood-pressure was ex- 
hibited to each member of the class in a similarly narco- 
tised dog by means of the hamodynamometer, a tube being 
placed in the animal’s carotid artery ; and as a concluding 
demonstration the important fact of the influence of 
nerves upon gland secretion was demonstrated by the 
beautiful experiment of Bernard, the chorda-tympani 
being irritated, whilst a canula was placed in the duct of 
the submaxillary gland. Great care was taken that none 
of the experiments exhibited to or performed by the 
members of the class should be open to the charge of 
cruelty, the animals used being either completely nar- 
cotised, or (as in the case of the frogs) having the cerebral 
portion of the nervous system destroyed in the proper 
manner. 
Throughout the course the morning’s lecture was 
made preparatory to or an extension of what was after- 
wards brought under actual observation. The concluding 
lecture was devoted to a retrospect of the work which had 
been gone through, and an exposition of the idea which 
had guided the scheme of study pursued, the object having 
been not to make botanists, nor zoologists, nor anatomists, 
of the members of the class, but to give them a practical 
insight into the structure and activities of living things, 
in such a way as to enable them to observe for them- 
selves the relations and connections of the various forms 
of life, and to follow from actual examples the charac- 
teristics and increasing complexity of different plans of 
structure, 
The reports of work and lectures daily sent in by the 
members of the class were entirely satisfactory, and the 
