SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
207 
MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
Skulls and Phrenology. — The Anatomical Museum of Naples has received 
from Professor Miraglia a donation consisting of the skulls of ten criminals, 
a few of which had remained during more than sixty years stuck up on the 
walls of Castel Capuano, a monument of the barbarous ages. The Professor 
has added to this gift an authentic history of the skulls, accompanied by 
various physiological and anatomical considerations on their appearance; 
and he purposes to adopt this as the subject-matter of a course of lectures 
which he will shortly deliver at Naples. 
Is there Sensation in the Head of a decapitated Man ? — The Lancet recently 
gave an interesting account of some experiments made on the head of a cul- 
prit who had been guillotined subsequently to the Troppmann affair. The 
head of the culprit was delivered to the experimenters five minutes after 
the execution, and was subjected to various processes which are most 
curious, and imply no small courage on the part of the investigators. First, 
MM. Evrard and Beaumetz tell us that the head was placed on a table 
covered with compresses, so as to show the amount of blood which would 
be obtained. The face was then bloodless, of a pale and uniform hue ; the 
lower jaw had fallen and the mouth was gaping. The features, which were 
immovable, bore an expression of stupor but not of pain. The eyes were 
open, fixed, looking straight before them ; the pupils were dilated ; the 
cornea had already commenced to lose its lustre and transparency. Some 
sawdust still stuck here and there to the face, but there was no vestige of any 
either on the inner surface of the lips or on the tongue. This is an important 
fact. The opening of the ear was then carefully cleansed, and the experi- 
menters applying their lips as closely as possible to the orifice called out 
three times in a loud voice the name of the criminal. Not a feature 
moved ; there was no muscular movement, either of the eyes or on the face. 
A piece of charpie, saturated with ammonia, was next placed under the 
nostrils ; there was no contraction of the alse nor of the face. The conjunc- 
tiva of each eye was deeply and several times successively cauterised with 
nitrate of silver ; the light of a candle was brought within two centimetres 
distance of the cornea, and yet no contraction was observed either in the 
eyelids, eyeball, or the pupils. 
The Muscular Power of the Uterus estimated Mechanically. — At a meet- 
ing of the Royal Society on March 10, the Rev. Professor Haughton read a 
paper on the mechanics of labour. Dr. Haughton, as usual, went thoroughly 
into his subject and produced a most elaborate and interesting paper. He 
states that, in the first stage of natural labour, the involuntary muscles of 
the uterus contract upon the fluid contents of this organ, and possess suffi- 
cient force to dilate the mouth of the womb, and generally to rupture the 
membranes. He endeavours to show, from the principles of muscular 
action already laid down, that the uterine muscles are sufficient, and not 
much more than sufficient, to complete the first stage of labour, and that 
they do not possess an amount of force adequate to rupture, in any case, the 
uterine wall itself. In the second stage of labour, the irritation of the foetal 
head upon the wall of the vagina provokes the reflex action of the voluntary 
abdominal muscles, which aid powerfully the uterine muscles to complete 
