165 



so as to destroy its sensibility, while the action of the heart continued, 

 Under these circumstances, he applied mechanical irritation, and also 

 various chemical agents, to the ganglions and plexuses of the gan- 

 glionic nerves, and found that the heart continued to beat with the 

 same regularity as before, and with the same frequency of pulsation. 

 From these and other observations, the author concludes that the 

 ganglionic system of nerves, with their plexuses and ganglions, per- 

 forms the office of combining the influence of every part of the brain 

 and spinal marrow, and of bestowing it on the muscles of involuntary 

 motion, these muscles being subservient to those functions of life 

 which require that combined influence ; that the manner in which 

 the influence of these organs affects the muscular fibre is not essen- 

 tially different from that of other stimulants and sedatives ; and that 

 this influence is not an agent peculiar to the nervous system, but is 

 capable of existing elsewhere, and is consequently not a vital power, 

 properly so called ; a conclusion which appears to him to be confirm- 

 ed from the circumstance that galvanism is capable of performing all 

 its functions. Hence he infers that the brain and spinal marrow, far 

 from bestowing on the muscular fibre its peculiar power, only supplies 

 an inanimate agent, which, like all other such agents, capable of 

 affecting it, acts on it either as a stimulant or sedative, according to 

 the degree in which it is applied, and is identical with the galvanic 

 influence. 



February 14, 1833. 



The Rev, WILLIAM BUCKLAND, D.D., Vice-President, in the 



Chair. 



A paper was read, entitled, " On the Existence of four distinct 

 Hearts, having regular Pulsations, connected with the Lymphatic 

 System, in certain Amphibious Animals." By John Muller, M.D., 

 Professor of Physiology in the University of Bonn. Communicated 

 by Leonard Horner, Esq., F.R.S. 



The author had long ago observed, that, in frogs, there exists, im- 

 mediately under the skin, large spaces containing lymph, whence it 

 can be readily collected by making incisions through the skin. These 

 receptacles for lymph are larger in the frog than in the other amphi- 

 bia : but all the animals of this class appear, from the observations of 

 the author, to be also provided with remarkable pulsating organs, 

 which propel the Ivmph in the lymphatic vessels, in the same way as 

 the heart propels the blood circulating in the arterial system. In the 

 frog, two of these lymphatic hearts are situated behind the joint of 

 "the hip, and immediately underneath the skin. Their contractions 

 are performed with regularity, and may be seen through the skin ; 

 but they are not synchronous either with the motions of the heart, or 

 with those of the lungs, and they continue after the removal of the 

 heart, and even after the dismemberment of the animal. The pulsa- 

 tions of these two organs on the right and left side are not performed 

 at the same time, but often alternate at irregular intervals. 



