BRITISH ASSOCIATION NOTES. 463 
number of toes. They were very clever at catching mice, and readily learned to 
shake hands. The President said the importance of such observations lay in 
their bearing on heredity. Reasons had been advanced to show that man was 
-descended from a six-fingered animal. Miss Buckland said she had seen in Bath 
a cat with seven toes on each foot. Professor Marshall remarked on the import- 
ance of such observations in relation to investigations as to the origin of species. 
Mr, Adam Sedgwick gave an account of the Periodatus — a slug-like animal 
which he found in South Africa, and of which he exhibited specimens. The 
animal, he said, had only recently been discovered, and he made a special visit 
to the cape to obtain specimens. Special interest attached to it, as it had no 
living relations in the animal kingdom. It was a survival of a type of animal 
which at some ancient time in the world's history was represented by a greater 
number of forms. The animal lived in the roots of rotten trees, and it had pro- 
bably survived on account of its habits and the difficulty of finding it. Since its 
first discovery the animal had been found in New Zealand, South America, and 
other parts of the world. 
Dr. Stone read a paper on the electrical resistance of the human body. He 
began by observing that the application of this powerful force to the organism in 
a scientific manner was still in embryo, and that the results had hitherto fallen far 
below what might be expected. The main difficulty in obtaining this resistance lay, 
first, in the difficulty of making good contact through the skin of a living man, 
and, secondly, in the rapid electrolysis which takes place in the tissues when a 
current passes through them. The resistance of the skin, he thought, had been 
greatly overstated, and might easily be overcome by very large electrodes satu- 
rated with a conducting solution. The electrolysis was checked by alternating 
contacts and momentary duration of the current. In this way he had obtained 
very satisfactory results — among others, the interesting physiological observation 
that a man of 5 feet 6 inches in height, another of 6 feet 3 inches, and the Hun- 
garian giant, who was 8 feet high, nearly all gave from the wrist to the ankle a 
resistance close upon a thousand Ohms, the larger man being decidedly the 
better conductor. The influence of temperature and of disease was also adverted 
to, the body apparently following the law of solid conductors, increasing in re- 
sistance with heat and becoming a far better conductor when suffering from par- 
alysis than in the condition of health. 
Dr. Stone also read a paper on some effects of brain disturbance on the 
handwriting. It was not surprising, he said, that affections of the cerebral hem- 
ispheres competent to interfere with the complex co-ordination of speech should 
also show their influence on the similar act of writing. Essentially both functions 
were acquirements which by practice had become automatic, and were put forth 
involuntarily. He said, therefore, that as the defect known as aphasia might 
occur in different parts of the circuit, so might graphic modifications. Three 
such cases he described, one of which occurred to himself personally. After 
sustained mental effort, he fell down in partial state of insensibility. During 
three weeks delirium and delusions predominated over physical depression. 
