1889.] Physiology. 50^ 
physiological natures of peripheral nerves. For this work the 
author received last year the Marshall Hall prize. An abstract 
of the results follows. 
Gaskell began his work by the study of the innervation of 
the frog's heart. He found that the vagus not only inhibits 
but also accelerates the rate of the contractions. This led to 
the discovery that the vagus in the frog is in reality the vago- 
sympathetic, /. e. the nerve trunk consists in part of vagus 
fibres, in part of sympathetic fibres, the two uniting early in 
their course ; the vagus fibres proper are inhibitory, the sympa- 
thetic fibres cause acceleration. Taking into account not only the 
primary effects of the stimulation of these fibres, but also the 
after effects, Gaskell came to the conclusion that " the process 
of inhibition is bound up with changes in the muscle of a bene- 
ficial nature to the further action of that muscle, while the 
action of the augmentor nerve resembles rather the action of 
a motor nerve, and causes an exhaustion of the muscular ac- 
tivity." He concluded, therefore, that "inhibition of con- 
traction is the symptom of the action of an anabolic nerve i. e. 
a nerve which brings about constructive metabolism, just as 
much as contraction or augmentation of contraction is the 
symptom of the action of a katabolic nerve i. e. a nerve which 
causes a destructive metabolism." He further studied the 
nerve supply of the rest of the vascular system, and came to 
the conclusion that all tissues are supplied with two sets of 
nerve fibres, one anabolic in nature, the other katabolic. 
In the study of the nerves of the tortoise's heart, he found 
that the sympathetic, or katabolic, fibres were all non-medul- 
lated, while the vagus, or anabolic, fibres were medullated. So 
here was a morphological difference bound up with a physi- 
ological difference, and the question arose, does this distinction 
hold good throughout the entire course 
The efferent nerves of the body can be divided into groups 
according to their function. If this division be not purely ar- 
tificial, the members of the different groups should agree with 
one another morphologically as well as physiologically. Gas- 
kell made the following classification of efferent nerves, and 
studied the different groups with great care. 
Efferent Nerves : 
I. Nervesof the vascular muscles. 
(a) Vaso-motor, /. e. vaso-constrictors, accelerators and 
augmentors of the heart. 
