1867. J Zoology and Animal Physiology. 447 



at inspiration caused increase in the force and frequency of the 

 pulse. This effect of inspiration is entirely mechanical, and is duo 

 merely to the expansion of the chest aiding the diastole of the 

 heart, for it has heen found, coderis paribus, that whatever tends to 

 assist the diastoic movement increases the force and frequency of 

 the contractions of the heart. 



Miscellaneous. 



Recent Publications. — Mr. Andrew Murray, F.L.S., has given to 

 the world a most sumptuous volume on the Geographical Distri- 

 bution of Mammals. It contains some most excellent and elaborate 

 maps, is printed most charmingly, and is published by Day and Co. 

 It is, however, only to be regarded as a compilation, and we regret 

 to say that even as such is deficient with regard to two or three 

 cases in which we happened to test it. Mr. Murray's original 

 views enunciated in certain parts of the book cannot carry much 

 weight ; at the same time, the book is a pleasing contribution to 

 zoological literature. 



The last Part issued of the Philosophical Transactions of the 

 Koyal Society contains Mr. Charlton Bastian's very elaborate re- 

 searches on the Nematodes, illustrated by many plates. It also 

 contains the first part of Dr. Carpenter's memoir on Autedon 

 (Comatula) rosaceus. This memoir is, indeed, such a one as might 

 be looked for from its talented and learned author. After spending 

 the earlier part of his life in the preparation of those valuable books 

 which are so well known, Dr. Carpenter now intends to devote 

 himself (as he says in the preface to the last edition of his Human 

 Physiology) to original observation. This beautifully illustrated 

 and elaborated memoir is an indication of what we may look for. 



Obituary. — It is with true sorrow that we record the death during 

 the past quarter of one of the most eminent and laborious of 

 British anatomists — John Groodsir, Professor of Anatomy in the 

 University of Edinburgh. Together with his brother Harry (who 

 perished in the Franklin expedition) and Edward Forbes, he wrote 

 many valuable zoological papers, and became a Fellow of the Eoyal 

 Society of London in 1846, after communicating through Professor 

 Owen his well-known paper on the supra-renal, thymus, and 

 thyroid bodies. About the same time he was elected to the 

 Edinburgh chair of anatomy. The lectures which he there gave 

 are among the most remarkable productions of their kind, contain- 

 ing no mere digest of manuals and text-books, but forming rather 

 the means by which he communicated to the world his own original 

 philosophical views and important observations on the matters 

 which he discussed. For many years he suffered from paralysis of 



