272 EASTERN COUNTIES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
The professor (who was received with great applause) commenced 
by describing the difference in structure between the so-called mucous 
and serous salivary glands, and drew attention to the change which 
occurs in the mucous glands, when these passed from a state of rest 
into that of activity. The physical and chemical properties of the saliva 
were discussed at length, and it was shown that the saliva was a liquid 
which mainly served mechanical ends, seeing that in a large number of 
animals the liquid is devoid of the starch dissolving ferment called 
ptyalin. 
The various facts connecting the secretion of particular salivary glands 
with special functions, as deglutition, gustation, mastication, were passed 
under review, the lecturer pointing out that from them it could 
certainly be concluded that whilst the parotid gland secretes a saliva 
specially subservient to mastication, the submaxillary and sublingual 
glands secrete a liquid specially related to gustation and deglutition. 
In this division of the subject the doctor discussed the quantities of 
saliva secreted by the principal domesticated animals on various diets. 
The structure of the stomach was then described, the description 
bearing especially upon that of the horse and dog. The lecturer pointed 
out that the old view which restricted the functions of the pyloric glands 
to the secretion of mucus have been shown to be incorrect, the epi¬ 
thelium at the bottom of all the gastric glands being engaged in the pre¬ 
paration of gastric ferment—“pepsine,” whilst the large oval so-called 
peptic cells of the gastric glands proper, of the older writers, are pro¬ 
bably concerned in the secretion of hydrochloric acid. 
The lecturer then described the properties of the gastric juice, and 
showed how it acted upon the proteid constituents of food, converting 
them into peptones. The lecture throughout was fully illustrated by 
the aid of diagrams and experiments. 
In the second lecture Dr. Gamgee proposes to treat of the digestive 
changes which the food undergoes in its passage through the small and 
large intestines. 
A cordial vote of thanks to Dr. Gamgee, proposed by Mr. Peter Taylor , 
and seconded by Mr. T. Greaves , for his most interesting and instructive 
lecture, was carried by acclamation. 
A vote of thanks to the chairman closed the proceedings. 
Sam. Locke, Hon. Sec. 
NORFOLK AND EASTERN COUNTIES VETERI¬ 
NARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
We insert the paper on “ Tuberculosis,” read by Mr. Fleming, at the 
half-yearly meeting of the members of this Association. 
Mr. Fleming , in commencing his paper, pointed out that while medical 
science is combating, with some degree of success, many diseases which 
have long been a scourge to mankind, and finds the prospect of complete 
victory more in the way of prevention than of cure, there are hydra¬ 
headed disorders which strain to the utmost the skill and ingenuity of 
man. To discover the cause of disease is a grand object in medicine, 
and especially with regard to those maladies whose course is so insidious, 
rapid, or destructive that all attempts at remedying them are futile. 
Hence it is that in recent times far more attention has been devoted to 
the pathology of disease, and particularly to its causation, than formerly. 
Experimental pathology, a creation of modern days, is destined to play 
a leading part in all pathological investigation. Helped by the accessory 
