212 



Mr. J. N. Langley. [Mar. 19, 



James Cockle's results ' and his own. The object of this communica- 

 tion is to show that there is not only similarity but absolute identity, 

 the two classes of functions considered by Professor Malet coinciding- 

 in every point with the ordinary and differential criticoids discussed 

 by Sir James Cockle." 



My object in writing this note is to call attention to the fact that, 

 by the omission of the first part of my note, and his own comments 

 on the partial extract he makes from it, Mr. Harley represents me as 

 making a statement bearing an interpretation very different from 

 that I meant it to bear. 



Having done so, I will trouble the Society with the matter no 

 further, and will leave it to those who may be interested, to judge if 

 the general results of my paper are identical with Sir James 

 Cockle's. 



III. "The 'Paralytic' Secretion of Saliva." By J. N. Langley, 

 M.A., F.R.S., Fellow and Lecturer of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge. Received March 16, 1885. 



It was shown by Claude Bernard that section of the chorda 

 tympani nerve in the dog, causes, after an interval of about twenty- 

 four hours, a slow " paralytic " secretion of saliva from the sub- 

 maxillary gland-; the secretion continues for several weeks, and is 

 accompanied by a gradual diminution in the size of the gland. 

 Heidenhain confirmed these observations, and he found further that 

 the effect was not confined to the gland on the side of the body on 

 which the nerve had been cut, but extended also to the corresponding 

 gland of the opposite side of the body, so that section of either chorda 

 tympani nerve caused a continuous secretion from both sub-maxillary 

 glands. Since Heidenhain's paper in 1868, nothing has, so far as I 

 know, been published on this subject. I purpose to give a brief 

 account of some observations which were made by me several years 

 ago, and which may serve to recall attention to certain curious facts 

 touching both nerve and gland physiology. 



Since the secretion, which takes place on the side of the body on 

 which the nerve is cut, is called the " paralytic " secretion, we will call 

 the corresponding secretion, which takes place on the opposite side 

 of the body, the " anti-paralytic," or more briefly the "antilytic" 

 secretion.* 



I will consider first the paralytic and antilytic secretions during 

 the first day or two of their occurrence. During this time the 



* A fuller account will be published in the forthcoming number of the " Journal 

 of Physiology." 



