198 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 186 



stein have recently been repeated by Wedenskii/ 

 who was unable to find any evidence of the ex- 

 haustion of the nerve, even after the tetanic 

 stimulation had continued six hours. A study of 

 the subject upon warm-blooded animals seeming 

 desirable, experiments were made upon cats, in 

 the laboratory of the Harvard medical school.^ 

 It was found that stimulation of the nerve lasting 

 from one and a half to four hours (the muscle be- 

 ing prevented from contracting by curare) did not 

 exhaust the nerve, since on the elimination of the 

 curare the muscle began to contract. 



It thus appears that evidence of fatigue in 

 nerves resulting from functional activity is as 

 difficult to obtain as that of chemical change or of 

 heat-production. It is conceivable that the irrita- 

 bility of a nerve should depend upon its possessing 

 a certain definite chemical composition, constantly 

 maintained by metaboMc changes, and yet that the 

 irritation of the nerve should produce no change 

 whatever in its composition. 



In support of this view, an analogy may be 

 drawn from the physiology of the muscular sys- 

 tem. We find here that the power of the muscles 

 to perform their function is intimately associated 

 with the amount of nitrogenous material under- 

 going decomposition in the body, but the perform- 

 ance of a given amount of muscular work, if with- 

 in physiological limits, does not effect the amount 

 of nitrogen excreted. In the case of muscles, to 

 be sure, we have evidence of a considerable 

 decomposition of non-nitrogenous material, and 

 also of heat-production in connection with func- 

 tional activity, but, if we limit our consideration 

 to the nitrogenous element of muscular substance, 

 the hypothesis above proposed for nerves finds its 

 complete analogy in the muscular system. 



We have thus seen that investigations into the 

 chemical changes, the heat-production, and the 

 fatigue of active nerves, all lead to results more 

 favorable to a kiuetic than to a discharging theory 

 of nerve action. 



We may, therefore, reasonably hope that future 

 researches, if directed on this line, will throw 

 further light on this most mysterious and interest- 

 ing process. 



In the ' Catalogue of printed books ' in the 

 British museum, now issuing in random instal- 

 ments, one heading which has just been com- 

 pleted — ' Academies ' — is of special scientific in- 

 terest. This and ' Periodical publications' (which 

 is also nearly completed, four of the five parts 

 being out) will indeed include reference to a large 

 proportion of scientific literature, and it is not 



» Centralbl. med. Wiss., 1884, 65. 



2 Bowditch, Journal of physiology, vi. 13-3. 



probable that any library in the world can at aU 

 compete with the British museum in its general 

 completeness in these departments. The earlier 

 publication of this list of titles of society publica- 

 tions would have rendered the catalogues of Scud- 

 der and Bolton more satisfactory. The volume of 

 ' Academies ' is a folio of 1018 pages. London 

 alone occupies one part with nearly 200 pages, 

 though Paris has less than 90. The publications 

 are arranged under the name of the issuing body, 

 and these alphabetically under the town where 

 situated, the towns having their English form and 

 making a single alphabet. Thus Compiegne, Con- 

 cord, Constantina, Constantinople, and Copen- 

 hagen follow in that order. A few countries are 

 introduced into the alphabet for some general 

 societies, though other societies with equal right 

 to a national name are placed under the seat of 

 government. The United States does not appear, 

 and it would be difficult to say where to look 

 for our peripatetic societies. Certainly the Amer- 

 ican association publications can nowhere be 

 found, though they are doubtless in the nmseum, 

 as we note one or two other omissions known 

 tp us to be there. Only completed series are 

 fully entered ; of others, the first volume in the 

 possession of the museum is given, with the 

 added words, 'in progress.' There is no trans- 

 literation, but Greek, Russian, Persian, or what 

 not, are mixed in one alphabet with the Roman. 

 Some curious rules have been followed in the 

 alphabetization : thus ' Societe cuvierienne ' pre- 

 cedes ' Societe d'acchmatation,' because of the prep- 

 osition in the latter ; yet Le ' bureau des longi- 

 tudes ' is made to precede La ' societe cuvierienne' 

 by dropping the objectionable particles from the 

 fuU names. These, of course, are minor matters, 

 and it would take a good many such to detract in 

 any serious measure from the value of this excel- 

 lent and carefully edited work. 



— Messrs. Jackman and Webster report in the 

 Photographic news their results in photographing 

 the retina of the human eye. A small camera 

 was employed, placed behind an ophthalmoscope, 

 and the albo-carbon gaslight was the means of 

 illumination. In the photograph the normal cup- 

 ping of the optic disk and the principal blood- 

 vessels are readily discerned. It is evident that 

 but a beginning has been made in this method of 

 research ; but, if continued, very valuable results 

 may be obtained. The method of Brainerd and 

 French in photographing the vocal cords and the 

 interior of the larynx promises equally well, and 

 is now employed by a number of laryngologists in 

 making permanent records of abnormalities in 

 these parts. 



