172 REPORT — 1861. 



lens might be cataractons without the patient being quite blind. Where a patient 

 laboured under diabetes he had never seen a perfect lens. Von Gra3fe had demon- 

 strated that one case out of every four of diabetes was accompanied wilh visible 

 cataract. He (Dr. Richardson) had never failed in producing cataract in an animal 

 by the means he had described. If they would give him an animal and the mate- 

 rials, he would tell them when the total eclipse of the eye of the animal would 

 take place almost to a second. Occasionally, when sugar was present in the blood, 

 the retina became aflected. Frogs fed on sugar woidd become cataractic, but in 

 animals that had active digestive organs the condition was not so easily produced. 

 He had fed an animal on sugar for six weeks without producing any marked effect. 

 After he had produced cataract in an animal, he could cm-e it. The cataract he 

 produced in the frog and the cataract in the limnan subject were the same, with 

 this exception, that in the human subject the exciting cause, the production of 

 sugar, was constantly going on, whereas in the frog experimented on the eflect was 

 temporary. 



Physiological Researches on Resuscitation. By B. "W. Eichaedsou-, M.D., M.A. 

 The modes of death to which alone the author's remarks applied were such as 

 involved no organic lesion, and had not extended to putrefaction or coagadation of 

 the blood ; and by death he meant cessation, not of respiration only, but also of the 

 heart's action. As to coagulation of the blood, 700 observations had convinced him 

 that it did not usually take place for twenty minutes after death. The modes of 

 resuscitation he dwelt upon were — 1, artificial respiration ; 2, galvanism; 3, injection 

 into blood-vessels ; and 4, artificial ckculation. Amongst the conclusions, stated as 

 the residts of many experiments, were these : — that artificial respiration is useless if 

 the heart's action has ceased ; that the heart's action may be prolonged by artificial re- 

 spiration in a temperature of 130 degrees, where it would cease at once in an ordinaiy 

 temperature ; that when the heart has ceased to act in these cases, the right side of 

 the organ is full of blood, and the left nearly empty ; that then the column of blood 

 which should pass from the right side to the left is broken, the hydrostatic law is 

 violated, the two sides of the heart are in opposition, and the right side has not 

 only to get over the weight of the column of blood, but also the contractile power 

 of the left side — a thing it cannot do ; that galvanism .applied in any way to stimu- 

 late the heart hastens the cessation of theheart's motion, and that galvanism cannot be 

 applied in any known way to resuscitate without injury ; that injection of water at 

 130° Fahr. into the large blood-vessels of a dog will produce the muscular actions 

 of life an hour after the muscles liave been rendered toiitid by prolonged galvanism, 

 and two hom-s and a half after death ; that this result, however, is not useful for 

 the real recovery of life ; and that the great desideratum now is some simple me- 

 chanical means of ellecting artificial circulation. Dr. Richardson showed an appa- 

 r.atus of his own by which artificial circulation can be brought about,- but not, 

 imfortimately, without opening arteries too large to make the process useful. In 

 cases of suspended animation, lie recommended that if any respiration, however 

 feeble, exists, no attempt should bo made to interfere with it; that the patient 

 should be placed in a diy atmosphere, .at 130° of heat ; that artificial respiration 

 should always be set up where no breathing exists, as it is possible there may still be 

 some cardiac motion ; that electricity and galv.anism are worse than useless ; and that 

 injection of arterial blood into arteries might be useful in many cases, if such blood 

 could be obtained. 



On tlie Cenncal and Occipital Vertchrce of Osseous FisJies. 

 By Chaeles Eobeetson, Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University of Oxford. 



The author gave a description of the cer^acal vertebrfe and their .appendages in 

 a few osseous fishes not before described, and important in considering the vertebral 

 theory. He then proceeded to show tliat the same kind of modifications are met 

 with in the grouping of the elements of the occipital segment of fishes and in the 

 skull, as in the vertebral column the same elements are not invariably present, but 

 are subject to variations. The conclusions an-ived at were these : — 1. The partition- 

 wall of the cranial cavity protecting the cerebelhmi is not invariablY formed by 

 two paii's of neiu'apophyses, exoccipitals, and epiotic : when the exoccipitals take a 



