Abstract
LONDON. Royal Society, March 6.—E. D. Adrian and Sybil Cooper: The electric response in reflex contractions of spinal and decerebrate preparations. Records have been made of the reflex action currents in the tibialis anticus and vasto-crureus of spinal and decerebrate animals. The reflex contractions were produced by electric stimuli applied to the popliteal nerve. In the flexion reflex of the spinal preparation the electric response consists of a regular series of “primary “waves having the same frequency as the stimuli. If the stimuli are very strong and their frequency below 50 a second, small “secondary “waves may appear. In the decerebrate flexion reflex the secondary waves are usually present so long as the frequency of stimulation is low. In the decerebrate crossed extension reflex the secondary waves are still more conspicuous, and may be completely absent. These results agree with the observations of Liddell and Sherrington on the reflex mechanical response. The secondary waves are not due to proprioceptor impulses from the contracting muscle, for they persist after injections of novocain into the muscle.—A. Fleming: A comparison of the activities of antiseptics on bacteria and on leucocytes. Leucocytes which have been allowed to emigrate from a blood clot on to the walls of a capillary tube, or defibrinated blood containing its full quantum of leucocytes, exercise a powerful bactericidal action on staphylo-cocci. When antiseptic solutions are brought into contact with such leucocytes or blood, the destructive action of the antiseptic on the leucocytes is much more marked than it is on the bacteria. When added to infected blood in certain concentrations, most of the antiseptics permit the development of almost all the bacteria implanted, although the blood without any antiseptic will destroy from 90 to 100 per cent, of the added cocci.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 113, 409–411 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/113409b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/113409b0