390 
MAT ORE 
[August 27, 1885 
arteries where the action of the heart produces the whole effect,” 
and adds: ‘‘ There is much obscurity on the subject, as well as 
in the course of the blood in the general veins; and every 
judicious mind cannot fail to observe that there is a great vacuum 
to be filled up.” 
The object of this paper is to contribute to the solution of this 
mystery—first by proving that there zs pulsation in the veins, 
and that therefore the heart’s action 7s directly concerned in the 
return of the venous blood, and secondly, by suggesting the 
mode in which it is exerted. 
I had observed that, on very close and careful finspection, 
there was in the veins (in those at the back of the hand, for 
instance) a visible though exceedingly delicate pulsatory undula- 
tion ; but so minute that I have generally (but not always) 
failed to show it to others. It therefore became desirable to 
devise some means by which the fact might be made more 
manifest. 
In the first instance I requested a lady, who was unable to 
perceive any pulsatory movement in the veins on the back of 
her hand, to feel and silently count her own pulse while I 
counted aloud the beats as indicated by what I could perceive in 
those veins, She was surprised to find that my counting corre- 
sponded exactly with hers, but observed that the beats of her 
pulse came intermediately and al‘ernately with my counting. 
This J had not thought of or suggested. But it is, in fact, what 
would be the necessary result of the heart’s action, and corre- 
sponds with its a/fexnate contraction and dilatation. 
In order to make more evident this venal pulsation the fol- 
lowing experiment was successfully tried:—A small piece of 
silvered glass (about § inch by t inch) was made to adhere to 
the surface of a swollen vein on the hand in such manner that 
one edge of the glass rested on the central ridge of the vein, 
while the other was in contact with the surface clear of the 
visible vein by the side of it. This, applied in the sunshine, of 
course afforded a spot of light, the movement of which reflected 
from the mirror, would indicate the slightest tilting of its plane 
by the undulating action of the vein, and the result was beauti- 
fully conclusive. 
the pulse, and its vibrations were in the direction which cor- 
responded with the tilting which should be the result of the 
position of the mirror in relation to the vein. Then a second 
mirror was applied on the offostte side of the vein, and the 
vibrations of the light spot took an offosize direction, which was 
to be expected, as the result of a tilting anticlinal to the first. 
A mirror placed on the knuckle (where are no veins of sensible 
importance) showed no sensible vibration. Thus the objection 
which J anticipated, that the vibration of the light spot might 
be caused by the general response in the limbs to the ordinary 
arterial pulsation, is answered by the evidence that a varied 
position of the mirror in respect of an individual vein was pre- 
ductive of a correspondingly varied motion of the light spot. 
If, then, it is proved that, notwithstanding all previous 
authorities (to which I have had access), pulsation in 
the veins does exist, pulsation corresponding in rhythm 
with that of the arterial system, it becomes a corollary 
that the heart’s action does extend to the motion of the 
blood in the veins, and an evident solution of the mystery of 
the return of the blood from the extremities appears to result. 
The expulsive effect of the heart’s contraction is familiar, but the 
effect of its expansion, much in consequence of the venous pul- 
sation having been unseen and denied, has been, as far as I 
know, ignored. Eyery one knows how an indiarubber ball 
syringe is filled by its expansion after compression. Apply this 
analogy to the expansion of the heart, and the return of the 
venous blood, the valves in the veins cooperating, would be 
equally certain. But this involves the existence of a correspond- 
ing venal pulsation, the supposed absence of which supported the 
theory that the direct action of the heart was limited to the 
arterial system. 
I add some directions for the successful trial of the mirror 
experiment. The pulsatory motion is very small, and the 
action of neighbouring veins seems to cause parts of the surface 
to be neutral in respect of the displacement of the plane of the 
mirrors. It is, therefore, desirable to search experimentally for 
the best place for them ; that is, where the resulting displacement 
becomes most evident; also the use of some sort of vigorous 
movement of the body or limbs, such as would cause a general 
exaggeration of the heart’s action, naturally causes the vibrations 
of the light spot to become more conspicuous. The hand should 
be supported in the most steady manner, otherwise the pulsatory 
The light spot vibrated in accordance with 
vibration becomes mixed up with an indefinite movement of the 
light spot due to general unsteadiness. The mirrors should not 
be more than Z inch square or thereabouts. The silvering is 
liable to be detached from the glass by adhesion to the skin, if 
the glutinous substance is applied directly to the back of the 
mirror ; to prevent this its back and edges should be covered 
with thin gummed paper (such as the margin of a sheet of 
postage stamps affords), This protects the silvering, so that the 
mirrors may be used repeatedly, and their position changed as 
often as may be required ; whereas without this precaution they 
may be spoilt on the first application. Any sticky glutinous 
substance which does not dry readily (such as indiarubber dis- 
solved in mineral naphtha) is convenient, because by its use the 
mirror may be with the least trouble shifted from one spot to 
another, in the search for a place where the venous pulsation is 
most visibly effective ; and this will not always be found exactly 
where from the appearance of the veins it might be expected to 
occur. J. HippisLey 
Stoneaston Park, Bath, August 10 
The Fauna of the Sea Shore 
In the recent correspondence in NATURE on the “ fauna of the 
sea shore,” an ambiguity has arisen in the use of the term 
“littoral.” 
I, following Prof. Moseley, on whose lecture I was com- 
menting, used the word in the extended sense of describing 
areas and faunas that were neither ‘‘ deep-sea” (in the modern 
acceptation of the term) nor ‘‘ pelagic.” Mr. Hughes, on the 
other hand, has employed it in its common acceptation as de- 
scriptive of the shore area between tide marks. 
The portion of the sea-bottom disturbed by waves has at 
present no term told off to describe it. It is mot necessarily 
“littoral” in any sense, as that word will not cover the case of 
sand-banks far from the coast ; such, for instance, as the banks of 
Newfoundland, where, according to both zoological and 
nautical evidence the waves act strongly on the sea-botton. 
Some such term as ‘‘undal zone” might be used to describe 
those marine areas where the waves can sensibly affect the 
fauna. 
The downward limit of this undal zone has not, I believe, 
been hitherto defined. In the case of oscillating waves (the 
ordinary ocean waves) 50 fathoms seems to approach the 
practical limit of disturbance, but, according to the evidence of 
marine charts, the waves appear to make themselves felt at 
greater depths. 
In the late Mr. R. A. C. Godwin-Austen’s map of the English 
Channel (Q. ¥. G. S., vol. vi. p. 96), the following deposits are 
indicated, viz. :— 
40 to 50 fathoms, fine granite shingle with fragments of a/éotés 
tuberculata. 
50 to 60 fathoms fine granite shingle with fragments of Patella 
vulgata. 
70 to 80 fathoms, coarse sand and gravel, with decayed Patella 
vulgata. 
go to too fathoms, coarse sand, fine gravel, Cardium edule, 
Turbo littoralis, and Patella vulgata. 
Outside 109 fathoms, very fine shell sand, Pecten varins, 
Cardium edule, Patella vulgata, and Turbo littoreus. 
Referring to one of these collections of shells (in upwards of 
go fathoms) between Ushant and the Little Sole Bank, the dis- 
tinguished author remarks:—‘‘ Taking the two phenomena 
together, the occurrence of littoral shells and of marginal 
shingle, we may safely infer that we have at this place the indi- 
cation of a coast line of no very distant geological period, buried 
under a greit depth of water, and removed to a great distance 
from the nearest present coast-line.” 
The fact that shells are perishable owing to decay, corrosion, 
and the ravages of marine organisms, seems to me to militate 
against the probability that the shells in question are of geo- 
logical antiquity ; and their occurrence in connection with sand 
and shingle instead of mud would rather indicate the present 
action of currents strong enough to keep the sea-floor clean. 
This ordinary tidal currents cannot do, though wave and tidal 
currents combined can. 
Under the joirt influence of storm waves and storm-engendered 
currents, light shells may well travel down the channel bed to 
40 or 50 fathom soundings. Theory and observation agree in 
the efficacy of wave and current to this extent. But to account 
