442 Dr. J. Wickham Legg on the [Apr. 6, 



B 2 -r 2 ,1 



=wT - 



gE-logr) J' 



W being the weight of water, in grammes, discharged in a second, r the 

 radius of the jet in turns of the micrometer- screw (6-8 turns of which 

 correspond to 1 centim.), B being the radius of the aspirating tube. 



The results obtained by observation accorded well with those given by 

 this equation, so long as the value of B did not exceed the limit within 

 which the suppositions regarding the motion of the air hold good. 



The question was considered whether the results might not be brought 

 into even closer accord with theory by the assumption that a slipping 

 action takes place between the air and the water-jet on the one hand, and 

 between the air and the tube on the other, instead of the assumption pre- 

 viously made that the air adhered alike to the water and to the tube in its 

 passage. The result of the calculation, however, led to no nearer ap- 

 proximation ; and, finally, experiments with other materials for the tube 

 and other gases (namely, coal-gas and carbonic anhydride) were made, 

 without resulting in any marked difference from the results obtained with 

 air and glass. 



II. " An Inquiry into the Cause of the slow Pulse in Jaundice.-" 

 By J. Wickham Legg, M.D., Demonstrator of Morbid Anatomy 

 in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Communicated by J. Burdon 

 Sanderson, M.D., Professor of Physiology in University Col- 

 lege, London. Beceived February 24th, 1876. 



It has long been known to physicians that the pulse of patients 

 jaundiced and free from fever is often slow. But I am not acquainted 

 with any definite investigation into this subject until about thirteen years 

 ago, when Bohrig published his researches upon the influence of the bile 

 upon the heart*. He was the first to find out that the bile-acids, not the 

 pigments nor the cholestearin, had the power to render the pulse slow. 

 He formed the opinion that this slow pulse was caused by a paralysis of 

 the cardiac ganglia, because the pulse became slow after the injection of 

 the bile-acids into the jugular vein, even when the vagi had been cut, 

 and because the heart of the frog, cut out and plunged into a solution of 

 bile-acids, beat a less number of times than when cut out and immersed 

 in serum. 



The following year Traube published an altogether different explana- 

 tiont. It is well known that the bile-acids have the power of dissolving 



* ' Arch. f. Heilkunde,' 1863, p. 385. Also in an Inaugural Dissertation, "Ueber 

 den Einfluss der Galle auf die Herzthatigteit," Leipzig, 1863. 



t ' Berliner klinische Wochenschrift,' 1864, No. 9 and 15 ; also in { Gesaromelte 

 EeitrJige' (Berlin, 1871), Bel. i. p. 366. 



