TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 1057 
4, Some points in the Anatomy of Sowerby’s Whale (Mesoplodon bidens).' 
By Professor W. Turner, M.B., F.R.S. 
5. On the use of Graphic Representations of Life-histories in the teaching of 
Botany. By Professor F. O. Bower. 
The object of this paper was to bring before the notice of teachers of botany 
such diagrammatic representations of life-historiés of plants as had previously 
been published by the author in the Journal of the Linnean Society, in a paper 
‘On Apospory in Ferns,’ and with this object the author had prepared a series of 
figures, of which those relating to the ferns were similar in their main points to 
those published in the paper above referred to: the series was, however, further 
extended to the higher forms. It was clearly laid down that in the opinion of the 
author, and according to his constant practice, these figures are only to be used 
after the chief characters of the plants in question, and their processes of develop- 
ment and reproduction, have been described in detail by the teacher: in fact, that 
they are intended to serve only as a simple recapitulation of the main facts, from 
which comparative conclusions may be the more easily drawn by the teacher, and 
presented forcibly to the mind of the student. If used in any other way, there is 
great danger of the graphic method being a stumbling-block and hindrance to 
true progress. After describing the proposed diagrams in detail, and giving inci- 
dentally a description of the newly-discovered and interesting phenomenon of 
apospory in ferns, the author proposed the following questions for discussion by 
the teachers present : 
1, Are such diagrams as these to be used at all? 
2. Is it judicious to load them with further details ? 
3. How far may their use be extended to the lower forms ? 
SupPpLEMENTARY Mrrtinc.—PHYSIOLOGY. 
1. On the Direct Action of Anesthetics on the Frog-heart. 
By J. McGrzcor-Rosertson, M.A., MB. 
This was an investigation into the action of anesthetics on the excised heart 
of the frog. The heart was bound to the Kronecker canule, and connected with 
the frog-heart apparatus of Ludwig. The recording point of the mercury mano- 
meter traced the characters ‘of the contractions on the recording surface of the 
cylinder of a kymographion. 
At intervals nourishing fluid (consisting of defibrinated rabbit’s blood, one 
part, and ‘6 per cent. salt solution, two parts) was passed through the heart, the 
arrangement of the apparatus permitting the nourishing fluid containing a per- 
centage of the drug experimented with being supplied to the heart instead. ‘The 
aneesthetics used were found to vary in their action according to the dose. A 
small percentage stimulating the heart, and increasing the rapidity of the move- 
ment, a greater percentage lessening both the force and frequency, and a third 
completely paralysing the heart, and stopping all movement, so that even me- 
chanical stimulation failed to arouse the heart. In all cases, however, a few cubic 
centimetres of normal fluid restored the heart to its former vigour. The recovering 
heart passed backwards through the various stages of the action of increasing doses 
of the anesthetics. 
It was shown with ether that a dose sufficient to stimulate at a low temperature 
caused complete standstill at a higher temperature (35° C.), and that a dose which 
* Published in extenso in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, October, 1885. 
1885. 3Y 
