1883.] Physiology. 893 
the fissures, lets the blood penetrate into the substance of the 
heart, and reddens the heart-wall; while the action of the sec- 
ond group of muscles produces systole and diastole of the heart. 
Now the actions of these two kinds of muscles—the heart-vessel 
muscles and the proper heart-muscles—are not simultaneous and 
similar under the influence of local stimuli, removal of the brain, 
section of the spinal cord in different places, and poisons ; some- 
times the heart-walls were observed to be pale in diastole and 
deep red in systoles, and there were various other local differen- 
ces of behavior. This led the author to seek also an anatomical 
difference of the two groups of muscles, and he found one such 
on microscopical examination, for the proper heart-muscle fibers 
were cross-striped throughout and had long cell nuclei, whereas 
in the others the cross-striping did not comprise the whole width 
of the fibers, and the nuclei were oval. ith this anatomical 
difference the different mode of reaction of the two kind of 
muscles and their different function is intelligible —Nature. 
EFFECT OF PROLONGED HUNGER UPON THE BLOOD CORPUSCLES. 
—In May, 1881, a Mr. John Griscom, of Chicago, commenced a 
fast of forty-five days. The author (Lester Curtis, of Chicago) 
was invited by the “ managers” to make any investigations that 
he pleased, and after satisfying himself that the fast was to be 
conducted honestly, he chose the blood as a subject of study. 
The first examination made, at the commencement of the fast, 
shortly after the patient had eaten his last meal, showed the red 
corpuscles abundant, bright-colored, pure in appearance, regular 
and smooth in outline. Four days afterwards two kinds were 
This improvement was not lost during the remainder of the fast, 
though the abnormal appearance to some extent returned.— 
aioe : 
