SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
213 
fibres infiltrated with cancer-cells, but contained little fat. No suspicious 
elements were found in the stomach or in the nodule of the spleen. The 
liver-cells were large, many of them hyaline and without a nucleus, others 
nearly normal. A good deal of free oil, but not an abnormal amount, in the 
cells ; no excess of fibrous tissue. Some of the tubes of the kidney were 
infracted with granular and fatty epithelium ; many of them healthy. No 
abnormality noticed in the tufts. There was a considerable excess of fibrous 
tissue. — New York Medical Journal. 
Cold Drinks and their Influence over Blood-Pressure. — It is asserted by the 
“Journal of Anatomy ” (November), that Hermann and G-anz (“Pfliiger’s 
Archives,” 1870, p. 8) have endeavoured to ascertain what may be the reason 
for the widely-spread belief that cold drinks are dangerous during a heated 
state of the body. They injected water at a temperature of 0° C. into the 
stomachs of dogs. The blood-pressure always rose after an injection. This 
result cannot in their opinion be ascribed to absorption, because it appeared 
very speedily after the injection, and moreover hot water failed to produce 
it. The tracing obtained by the kymograph further showed that the 
increased pressure was not due to increased cardiac action ; they therefore 
ascribed it to contraction of the vessels due to the cold. They suppose that 
the evils which are commonly ascribed to drinking cold water during a 
heated state of the body are due to the sudden increase of blood-pressure 
which the cold produces, favouring congestion of the brain and lungs. 
Quite in opposition to what one would have anticipated, they found the 
increase of pressure much less in animals previously paralysed by curare. 
They fancy that when an animal is not so paralysed, the cold, by increasing 
the frequency of the respirations and the depths of the inspirations, brings 
into play a compensating mechanism which keeps the pressure from rising 
so much as it otherwise would (?) It is satisfactory to know that they 
intend to investigate further. 
Action of Alcohol on the Body . — A new medical periodical, styled “ The 
Doctor,” gives a note in its January number on the above subject. It says 
that Dr. Heinrich Timmerberg (“ Inaug. Dissertation,” Dorpat, 1869) found, 
as the results of his investigations and experiments on animals : — 1. That 
alcohol constantly lowers the bodily temperature. 2. That it lessens the 
frequency of the heart’s contractions. 3. That the blood-pressure in the 
carotids is lowered, indicating diminished force in the cardiac action, and 
that this effect was produced partly by direct action on the heart and partly 
through the vagus nerve. The retardation of regressive metamorphosis by 
means of alcohol is to be ascribed to the weakening of the heart’s action, as 
well as to direct influence on the blood. 
A Physiological Prize at Cambridge . — Dr.-J. Gedge, who went out with 
Sir Samuel Baker’s expedition to Africa, and whose death at Khartoum has 
been lately recorded, has left 1,000£. to the University of Cambridge, 
in order to found a biennial prize for physiological research. 
Dr. Norris's recent Experiments as to Blood. — At the recent soiree of the 
Boyal Society, among the many curiosities exhibited, the most remarkable, 
and what had most interest for members of the medical profession and for 
physiologists generally, were the experiments performed by Dr. John Norris to 
show the cohesion of colloidal films and spheres, by which he believes that 
YOL. X. — NO. XXXIX. Q 
