1885. ] Physiology. 1123 
ing blood. Beyer concludes that the elevation of arterial blood- 
pressure which follows the administration of cocaine depends 
upon its united stimulating effect upon the heart and the blood- 
vessels ; a fall of blood-pressure coming on after the rise must be 
due to the action of cocaine on the heart alone, because its con- 
stricting effect upon the blood-vessels outlasts its stimulating 
action on the heart. 
Like previous observers, the author found that atropine in cer- 
tain doses increases the rate of heart-beat and also the amount of 
work done, and moreover it exercises an inhibitory influence over 
the contractions of the ventricle. It is argued that the action of 
the two drugs upon the heart is almost identical, the main differ- 
ence being that the initial stage of stimulation by cocaine is much 
shorter and may be produced by smaller doses than is the case 
with atropine. The author concludes from the evidence of many 
data which cannot be recorded here, that the specific action of 
both cocaine and atropine is upon the muscular substance of 
the heart. 
Caffeine in rather small doses increases the rate and power of 
heart-beat and the amount of work done. Supplied directly to 
the blood-vessels caffeine produces in all cases a dilatation ; its 
total action in the uninjured animal ought, therefore, to cause the 
maximal amount of blood to circulate through the system ina 
unit of time.—Am. Jl. Med. Sci., July, 1885. 
RESTRICTION OF VASO-MOTOR EXCITEMENT IN HYPNOTIZED PA- 
TIENTS BY SuUGGESTION.— Hallucinations are readily excited in 
hypnotized persons when various ideas are suggested to them, 
but M. Dumontpallier finds that the influence of such suggestion 
is able also to extend itself definitely over the purely organic pro- 
cesses of the bo 
Two hysterical patients were hypnotized and a piece of paper- 
was held in place by a linen bandage upon the upper inner sur- 
face of each of the four limbs of either patient. It was now 
the first patient, at the end of forty-eight hours, the skin under 
the paper on the left leg showed a temperature elevation of 
2.8° C.; in the second patient the temperature of the skin under 
the paper on the right leg was raised 3° above the normal at the 
end of one, and 2.4° at the end of two days. In the case of each 
