638 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 
over-feeding and over-coddling indoors promotes health. The two together 
derange the natural functions of the body. He who seeks to save his life will 
lose it. 
The body of a new-born babe is a glorious and perfect machine, the heritage 
of millions of years of evolution. 
‘Not in entire forgetfulness, 
And not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory do we come. 
Shades of the prison house begin to close 
Upon the growing Boy.’ 
The ill-conditioned body, anzmic complexion and undersized muscles, or the 
fat and gross habit, the decay of the teeth, the disordered digestion, the nervous 
irritability and unhappiness are the result of ‘ Nurture ’"—not Nature. 
In institutions children may be disciplined to vigorous health. After leaving 
school they are set adrift to face monotonous work in confined places, amusement 
in music-halls and cinema shows in place of manly exercise in the open air, 
injudicious diet, alcohol, and tobacco—everything which the trainer of an athlete 
would repel. 
‘ And custom lie upon him with a weight 
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.’ 
The following Reports and Papers were then read :— 
{. Fourth Interim Report on Anesthetics.—See Reports, p. 285. 
2. Report on Calorimetric Observations on Man.—See Reports, p. 285. 
3. Report on the Effect of Climate upon Health and Disease. 
See Reports, p. 290. 
4. Report on the Dissociation of Oxy-Hemoglobin at High Altitudes. 
See Reports, p. 290. 
5. Report on the Ductless Glands.—See Reports, p. 291. 
6. Report on Electromotive Phenomena in Plants. 
7. Report on the Occupation of a Table at the Zoological Station at 
Naples.—See Reports, p. 186. 
8. Report on the Effect of Low Temperature on Cold-blooded Animals. 
See Reports, p. 292. 
9. Patrick Blair’s Account of the Nerves of the Trunk of the Dundee 
Elephant (1706). By Auaustus D. Water, M.D., F.R.S. 
Precisely two hundred years ago—on May 29, 1712—a very remarkable 
citizen of Dundee, Patrick Blair, graduated as a doctor of medicine at the 
