TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. Ill 



11. There is no demonstrative evidence, as yet, that any diseases are actually 

 caused by this negative condition of air; but the inference is fair, that diseases 

 which show a putrefactive tendency are influenced injuriously by a negative condi- 

 tion of the oxygen of the air. It is also probable that during this state decomposing 

 organic poisonous matters become more injurious. 



12. As ozone is used up in crowded localities, and as it is essential that ozone 

 should be constantly supplied in order to sustain the removal of decomposing sub- 

 stances and their products, no mere attention to ventilation and other mechanical 

 measures of a sanitary kind can be fully effective unless the air introduced be made 

 active by ozone. Fever hospitals and other large buildings in towns should be ar- 

 tificially fed with ozonized air. 



A few Remarks on the Causes of the Cattle Murrain. By Dr. Skettle. 



On Variability as manifested in the Construction of the Human Body. 

 By William Turner, M.B., F.U'.S.E. 

 After alluding to the diversities in the external form of the body, which impart 

 characters generally recognized as diagnostic not only of the race but of the indi- 

 vidual, the author proceeded to show that variations also occurred in the different 

 organic systems ; and though no outward evidence of the existence of many of 

 these variations may be manifested, yet they furnish the individuals in whom they 

 occur with characters as distinctive as any peculiarities of external configuration. 

 Hence, in the development of each individual, a morphological specialization occurs 

 both in internal structure and external form, by which distinctive characters are 

 conferred, so that each man's structural individuality is an expression of the sum 

 of the individual variations of all the constituent parts of his frame. The illustra- 

 tions advanced in support of the author's opinions were taken from the flexor 

 muscles of the fingers and toes, and from the modifications in the form and size 

 of a foramen called supracondyloid, which is occasionally met with in man, and of 

 the objects passing through it. Of the variations in the flexor muscles of the 

 lingers, the author especially pointed out the different slips not imfrequently met 

 with connecting together the muscles or subdivisions of muscles situated not only 

 on the same plane but on the superficial and deep planes. Of the variations occur- 

 ring in connexion with the flexor muscles of the toes, the different modes in which 

 the connecting slip passes from the long flexor of the great toe to the common 

 flexor of the toes were analyzed in fifty feet. In eleven it ended solely in the deep 

 tendon for the second toe ; in twenty in the deep tendons for the second and third 

 toes ; in eighteen in the deep tendons for the second, third, and fourth toes ; in one 

 in the deep tendon for the second, third, fourth, and fifth toes. Each of these 

 specimens again possessed characters which distinguished it from any other. In 

 nine cases a connecting band passed from the common flexor to the long flexor of 

 the great toe. Variations in the mode of arrangement of the accessory flexor, the 

 short flexor, and the lumbricales in the fifty feet examined were also described. The 

 differences which tbe supracondyloid process of the humerus exhibited in specimens 

 dissected by the author were also pointed out, and the variations in the objects 

 passing through the foramen which it assists in forming were summarized as fol- 

 lows : — 1st. Both brachial artery and median nerve may go through it. 2nd. With a 

 high division of the brachial artery,the ulnar artery and median nerve may go through 

 it. 3rd. With a high division of the brachial artery, the radial artery "and median 

 nerve may pass through it. 4th. The median nerve' with only a small* branch of the 

 brachial artery, may pass through it. 5th. The median nerve, unaccompanied by 

 any vessel, may go through it. Variability in construction was not manifested 

 merely in different individuals ; but in the same person corresponding structures on 

 opposite sides of the body were by no means symmetrically disposed. How far 

 these variations were produced by the conditions of life of the individual, or how 

 far they might be due to hereditary transmission, were questions which for the 

 present must be left undetermined. 



