Abstract
THE current number of the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology contains several papers of interest. Dr. Binz commence with an article On some effects of alcohol on warm-blooded animals, in which he supports the non-heating action of alcohol, considering the subjective impression as partly the consequence of the irritation of the nerves of the stomach, and of the enlargement of the cutaneous vessels. The cooling effect of alcohol on febrile conditions is demonstrated and shown to depend on its direct diminution of the activity of the cellular elements of the body, on the increase of the cutaneous circulation which arises frem strengthening of the heart's action, and in the diminution of muscular activity which follows its exhibition. —Dr. J. Blake continues his observations On the action of inorganic substances when introduced directly into the blood, endeavouring to show that in the same isomorphous group of elements, the intensity of physiological action increases as the atomic weight of the elements, but the relative atomicity of groups which are not closely related shows no corresponding gradation. The salts described on the present occasion are those of the alkaline earths.—Prof. Cleland discusses double-bodied monsters (kittens), and the development of the tongue in them, that organ being frequently found situated in the nasal passages, the palate at the same time being cleft.—Dr. C. Reyher described points connected with the cartilages and synovial membranes of joints, showing that the “synovial process,” or portion of the synovial membrane which lies over the borders of the cartilages, is not to be looked upon as an ingrowth of the synovial membrane but as being formed in situ as the development of the joint proceeds.—Mr. Reoch endeavours to account for the presence of free hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice, the constant presence of which he gives experiments in proof of, on the far-fetched assumption that the oxidation of the sulphur which is contained in albumen takes place in the walls of the stomach; that the sulphuric acid thus formed decomposes the sodium chloride, liberating free hydrochloric acid to form part of the gastric juice. —Prof. Turner having had a second specimen of the Greenland shark (Laemargus borealis), is enabled to give an account of parts omitted in the original description, to be found in the same journal of the year previous. He gives a drawing of the animal, which was six feet long. It was male, and the sexual organs are described. The testes possess no vasa-deferentia, their products must therefore be shed into the peritoneal cavity, whence they reach the exterior water through the abdominal pores. The ureters were found to combine before they entered the cloaca by the single duct.—Prof. Savory has a paper On the use of the ligamentum teres of the hip-joint, in which he endeavours to prove the idea, which, as he remarks, had been previously suggested by the late Prof. Partridge and by Prof. Turner, that the body is slung on the two ligaments as a carriage is on C. springs. Prof. Humphry criticises Mr. Savory's results, restating his former remarks that the ligamentum teres is not tense in the erect posture.—Prof. Turner, in description of variations in the arrangement of the nerves of the human body, mentions a branch from the fourth cranial nerve to the orbicularis palpebrarum. In another instance the same nerve sent a branch to the infra-trochlear of the nasal. Peculiarities in the various plexuses are also noted.—A loquacious paper follows by Dr. Radcliffe on the syntheses of motion, vital and physical, in which it is attempted to be shown, that in muscle the state of rest is that of contraction, the state of action relaxation.—Mr. Ogilvie and Mr. Cathcart give the dissection of a malformed lamb.—Prof. Crum-Brown gives an ingenious explanation of the sense of rotation and its connection with the semicircular canals, connecting it with the inertia of their contents affecting the peripheral ends of the auditory nerves.—Dr. Brunton proves the value of external warmth in preventing death from an over-dose of chloral.—Mr, F. Champneys gives a detailed description of the septum of the auricles of the frog and the rabbit.—Mr. J. C. Ewart describes the epithelium in front of the retina and the external surface of the lens.—Dr. J. Ogle describes and figures a man born without legs.—Prof. Turner gives a drawing of the surface of the brain in its relation to the skull, which is followed by part of his paper on the placentation of the sloths, which we have noticed on a former occasion.—Notes on some muscular irregularities, follow, by Prof. Curnow; and the papers of the number end with three short notes by Mr. G.J. M. Smith, Mr. J. A. Russell, and Mr. Bellamy, on the dissection of an excised elbow, on unusually large renal calculus, three inches long, and a fusion of some of the carpal bones, repectively.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 10, 196–197 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/010196a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/010196a0