TEANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 799 



particular woman who repeatedly dressed the wounded arm, it seems impossible to 

 avoid accepting a causal connection between the two events. 



Should such a connection be established, both on the physical and mental side, 

 we have evidently a new cause of modification distinct from normal heredity. 

 It has more analogy with the supposed inheritance of acquired variations, but 

 is quite distinct from it. It seems not unlikely that some of the cases of supposed 

 heredity of mutilations may be really due to this mental effect on the mother. It 

 therefore becomes very important that the whole subject should be thoroughly in- 

 vestigated. 



The following letter has also been received from Dr. Budd : 



' Barnstaple: September 10, 1893, 

 ' My dear Sir,— Some years ago the late Sir Frederick Williams, Bart., sent a 

 hrood mare, that had just been covered by a thorough-bred stallion, from his seat 

 in Cornwall, Tregullo, to his shooting-cottage at Heanton Puncharden, near 

 Barnstaple. When the groom entered the stable the following mornino- he 

 found that one of the mare's eyes was hanging by a nail in the wall. "The 

 mare was then placed for a run in the Braunton marshes. In due time she 

 produced a foal minus an eye on the same side as the mare's. The year following 

 this mare again had a foal with one eye ; but the third year she had a foal with two 

 good eyes, the impression on her brain having worn out. This, in my opinion is 

 quite as interesting a case as Croucher's. ' 



' In great haste to save this post, 



' Yours sincerely, 



. ' ElCHAED BuDD.' 



4. On Calorimetnj hy Surface Thermometry and Eygrometry. 

 By Augustus D. Wallee, M.D., F.B.S. 



This is in continuation of a communication made at the Lieo-e Cono'ress of 

 Physiology (1892). Of the conclusions then published the only one needino- to be 

 quoted for the present purpose is that the alteration of temperature of a Umb in 

 consequence of the exercise of its muscles is mainly a vascular effect. Which signifies 

 that the measurements given below are of muscular and vascular phenomena, not 

 of muscular phenomena alone. 



To form an approximate estimate of the calorimetric value of surface thermo- 

 metric readings I proceeded as follows : Headings were taken at intervals of an 

 internal and of an external thei-mometer in connection with an indiarubber sphere 

 of known surface, containing a known weight of warm water, allowed to cool in 

 still au\ Eeadmgs of a third thermometer gave the temperature of the air. The 

 internal thermometer indicated the heat loss in calories ; the external thermometer 

 gave indications that were proportional with the temperature-difference (hereafter 

 referred to as the T.D.) between the surface of the sphere and the surroundino- air 

 In this way it was estimated that each degree of indicated T.D. signified a heat- 

 emission of approximately 12-5 calories per 1,000 cm.^ per minute. 



The T.D. observed on the naked forearm was, under ordinary conditions, found 

 to be between 10° and 15° C. Assuming that, ceteris paribus, the radiation from 

 the skin was equal to that from the indiarubber, and taking the superficial area of 

 the forearm (not including the hand) at 500 cm.^, the heat-emission within the 

 above range of T.D. is 62-5 to 94 cals. per minute. 



Theoretically there are two obvious weak links in this argument, but for 

 practical purposes it maybe acted upon ; it affords a more tangible series of expres- 

 sions for variations of heat-emission under various conditions than is aflbrded by 

 merely thermometric terms, and the calorimetric values thus obtained possess at 

 least an equal degree of accuracy with those obtained by partial calorimetry. 



The weak links are (1) that Newton's law of cooling is not absolutely correct • 

 (2) that the coefficient of radiation varies with the nature of the coolino- surface ' 



1. Neivton's lazv is not absoluteli/ correct ; the heat-emission by radiation and 

 conduction per 1° T.D. is a diminishing value with diminishing T.D. We may 



