282 
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
of bone. Unconscious movements have long been recognised 
as tending to these lesions, which in effect would he pretty 
much the same as paralysis of the active organ of locomotion. 
It would be well for the owners, especially of race-horses 
and hunters, and, indeed, of every other class of horse, if 
these facts vvere well understood and acted upon. Much 
pain and suffering would be obviated, as would also many a 
“ break down,*^ as it is termed. The roadster, likewise, in 
many instances, might be saved from a broken knee, and his 
rider, perhaps, from a severe injury. 
Facts and Observations. 
Nerves of the Liver. —We see from the ^Proceedings 
of the Royal Society ^ that Dr. Lee has demonstrated that all 
the arteries—even the most minute—which ramify in the 
liver, are accompanied by nerves which take their origin from 
ganglia round the root of the hepatic artery, and which are 
intimately connected with, or form part of, the semi-lunar 
ganglion of the great sympathetic. 
Plasticity of Blood-corpuscles. — Dr. Sharpey 
says:—‘^The plasticity of the blood-corpuscle is unrivalled 
by any other physical body. It will assume all sorts of pro¬ 
tean shapes under the slightest influences. Elongating to a 
mere thread, it will pass through a narrow chink; it will 
wrap itself round an acute projecting angle, or protrude 
feelers and tails under the influence of currents. In its 
natural state it possesses sufficient elasticity to resume its 
original shape on the cessation of the modifying influences; 
but when gum or gelatine has been added, or when the 
plasma has been permitted to thicken spontaneously, the 
corpuscle retains any form it may have assumed till again 
altered by fresh influence .^^—^Proceedings of the Royal Societyy 
No. 52. 
M. Flourens on Wounds of the Brain. — The 
Comptes Rendus contains an account of experiments and 
observations by this distinguished surgeon, showing that 
wounds of the brain are easily cured. He cites several 
instances of human beings who have recovered from injuries 
involving loss of a portion of their brains, and adverts to his 
own proceedings in introducing leaden balls into the brains 
of rabbits and dogs. He made a hole in the skull with a 
