TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 143 



more, we directly aid in the development of all the organs which it contains. The 

 point to be desired is the uniform and harmonious development of the entire body; 

 because the strength of a man is but equal to that of his weakest part, while the 

 natural tendency is to gauge and estimate the general strength by the power of 

 the strongest part. This equal development is to be obtained only from systema- 

 tized exercise, prepared upon a clear comprehension of what is required, and based 

 upon a knowledge of the structure and ascertained functions of the parts of the 

 body to be employed, and of the laws which govern growth and development. The 

 inadequacy of recreative exercise to produce this development is fully borne out 

 by the frames of the youths who yearly arrive in this University from our public 

 schools. As the case now stands, every one who so arrives here does so with the 

 upper part of the body greatly in arrears. So distinctly is it in arrears, that an 

 average of 2 inches in girth of chest is obtainable in the very first term of his prac- 

 tice in the Gymnasium. This rate of increase is not sustained beyond the first term, 

 therefore it must be chiefly expansion of the cavity of the chest ; and it must be 

 an arrears of expansion, otherwise it woidd be sustained, seeing that the process 

 which produced it is increased and accelerated in the advancing courses of exercise. 

 The operations of systematized exercise are equally important and decided in other 

 directions, and especially in the rectification of abnormal spinal developments. 



On the Artificial Production of Bone and Osseous Grafts. 

 By M. Ollier. 

 M. Ollier exhibited some specimens illustrating the results of his experiments on 

 the production of bone, and summed up in the following propositions : — 



1. When the periosteum is detached from a bone, one end remaining attached, 

 bone is formed in the direction of the periosteum, its form and size being deter- 

 mined by the size and position of the membrane. 



2. After union has begun to take place between the periosteum and the soft parts, 

 the pedicel may be divided, but bone will still continue to form. 



3. If the periosteum be removed altogether and inserted among the soft parts, it 

 will make an attachment, and bone will be developed. 



4. If the inner surface of the periosteum be scraped off in part, no bone will form 

 on the portion so treated. 



5. If the matter scraped from the inside of the periosteum be brought into con- 

 tact with soft parts, bone will be developed from the periosteal cells. ° 



6. If a bone be taken out of its periosteal sheath, new bone will be produced* 

 but if a segment of such sheath be removed, no bone forms in that space. 



7. If a bone be removed entire witli its periosteum and inserted into soft parts, 

 adhesion will take place, and new bone will be deposited from the periosteum on 

 the old. 



8. If, in a piece of inserted bone, a part be deprived of periosteum, that part dies 

 or is absorbed. This latter process may take place bv the denuded portion becoming 

 either encysted or subjected to suppuration; as a general rule, in animals that are 

 healthy, and live in the country, the process of encysting takes place ; while in 

 feeble animals and those living in towns, suppuration is the ordinary result. 



Experiments on Mtiscular Action from an Electrical point ofvieiv 

 By Dr. C. B. Radcliff. 



On the Process of Oxygenation in Animal Bodies. 

 By B. W. Richardson, M.A., M.D. 



So soon as the discovery of oxygen by Priestley became an established fact in 

 the world of science, inquiries were set on foot as to the influence of this substance 

 on animal bodies. The term by which it was long known, " vital air," indicates 

 sufficiently the interest that was attached to it in a phvsiological point of view. 

 Priestley himself made various physiological experiments with oxyo-en in which 

 line of research he was followed by Lavoisier, Beddoes, Sir Humphry Davv Hill 

 and several other celebrities of the declining eighteenth, and rising nineteenth 

 century. From the researches of various experimentalists, it had been concluded 



