A Brief Suggestion, recommending a more complete Compilation of the Facts illustrating the Physiology of Vegetable and Animal Secretions. By R. DoWDEN.

On the Action of some Animal Poisons.

By M. FAYÈ, M.D., Professor in the University of Norway.

On the Action of the Auriculo- Ventricular Valves of the Heart.
By Dr. GAIRDner.

The author had frequently found auriculo-ventricular regurgitant murmurs, which were not fully explained by the post-mortem appearances. He pointed out anatomical conditions of the valves at the time of their tension, which he believed have not been sufficiently attended to; and that these explained the occurrence in certain otherwise obscure cases of regurgitant murmurs without organic lesions of the valves or dilatation of the orifices.

On the Mortality from certain Diseases. By Dr. GAIRDNER.

The object of the author was to obtain a more accurate account of the causes of death, especially in our hospitals, than yet obtained by the reports afforded by those institutions. In the course of his remarks Dr. Gairdner commented upon the returns of the Registrar-General, and stated that for the purposes of medical science they were in many respects framed so as to mislead, from their referring only to a single cause of death in each case, whereas the real fatal issues of disease were usually very complex.

On the Oriental Bath.

By EDWARD HAUGHTON, M.D. (Edinb.), M.R.C.S. Ed. Antiquarians inform us that some of the most ancient ruins in the world are those of hot-air baths; whilst hot-water baths (to lie down in) are so modern as to have been unknown to the Greeks. The former kind possesses many marked advantages over the latter, both in purifying the blood, and as a simple detergent; being, moreover, less liable to overheat the body; the evaporation from the surface being a safeguard in the case of hot-air which does not exist when a denser medium is employed. When the skin has been got to act well, soap and water are then employed to remove the impurities thus brought to the surface. The baths of the East are not only more salutary than those which we are familiar with, but are infinitely pleasanter; as the bath itself is a chamber permitting perfect freedom of motion. It is also of a social character; a kind of bathing dress being worn of sufficient size to permit persons of the same sex to meet together without embarrassment. This kind of bath is universally resorted to by Mahometans as a religious duty; indeed, on a rough calculation, it may be said to be employed by 4th of the human race, No objection on the head of climate can be urged against this practice, as it is employed in so many and so variable regions; nor could it be used (as it is) by every class of society, if there were anything in its nature to prevent it from being self-supporting at a reasonable charge. It appears, moreover, that certain forms of disease (here very prevalent) are scarcely known at all in those countries, where the bath is in general use; and that it also possesses considerable curative efficacy, being capable of removing opium, nicotine, alcohol, and other poisons from the blood; so that it is not unreasonable to suppose, that if it were introduced into this country, a great sanitary revolution would take place. These circumstances render it worthy of the best attention of all reformers and philanthropists.

On the Physiological Relations of Albumen. By Professor HAYDEN, M.D. The writer commenced with some preliminary observations tending to show that the elimination by the excernent glands of the body of certain of the staminal principles of the blood, was indicative of derangement in the normal proportion of its constituent elements, whether resulting from temporary indigestion or confirmed disease;

and proceeded: "It is well known that the elements of respiration' may be stored up in the body by a process of deposition in the form of fat, to meet the urgent demands involving a large expenditure of these elements, to which variation of external temperature and other circumstances occasionally expose the animal. Not so, however, the plastic elements of nutrition;' these are appropriated only as required for immediate use in the renovation of the tissues; and if from any cause one of them happen to be in excess in the blood, whether absolutely, as the direct result of indigestion, or relatively, by loss of some of the allied constituents, then a process which may be conveniently designated elemental adjustment is set up, by which the principle in excess continues to be discharged from the system till it attains the normal proportion relatively to the other staminal elements."

In proof of the existence of this self-adjusting power in the blood, the observation of Kaupp was mentioned, to the effect that the quantity of chloride of sodium excreted by the kidneys, usually observed a definite proportion to that taken by the animal; but if this salt be withheld for some time and then given in large quantity, the kidneys are found to eliminate less than the quantity taken : also that of Andral, "that the first effect of hæmorrhage on the constitution of the blood is a decrease of the corpuscles only; but if it (the hæmorrhage) be prolonged or repeated, the albumen and fibrine are found to have undergone a corresponding diminution." In such a case, it is asserted by Becquerel and Rodier that the equilibrium is not restored through the blood lost, in which the corpuscles and albumen observe a regular and equal ratio of decrease with each subsequent bleeding. Albumen is occasionally found in the urine of pregnancy, and may be accounted for on this hypothesis, by the loss of blood-corpuscles, often to the amount of 27 parts in 1000, experienced by such females who are peculiarly anæmic. An absolute or relative decrease of the fibrine, as in scurvy and plethora, will give rise to spontaneous hæmorrhage, by which the equilibrium is restored between the fibrine and globules. The marked pallor in Bright's disease indicates a loss of red corpuscles, amounting, according to the analyses of Becquerel and Rodier, to nearly 10 per cent. The albumen likewise undergoes a diminution, greatest towards the termination of the disease. In the chronic form of this disease the decrease of corpuscles and albumen was still more marked, whilst the fibrine had increased to a mean of 4:37 per thousand.

In order to test the correctness of the views here set forth in general terms, the following experiments were performed; the object was threefold, viz. 1st, to determine the effect produced on the urine by inducing an absolute or relative increase of albumen in the blood; 2ndly, the action of urea on the blood-corpuscles as exhibited by the microscope; and 3rdly, the proportion of albumen contained in the serous effusions of renal and cardiac dropsy respectively. With the first-mentioned object in view, blood was taken from living animals, the effect of which was a decrease in the proportion of corpuscles and a relative increase of the albumen of the circulating blood. An absolute increase of the albumen was produced by drawing a small quantity of blood from an animal, and then injecting into the vein an equal quantity of a solution of albumen of the temperature and specific gravity of blood-serum. After having been operated upon, the animal was placed under a wire crib on a concave zinc table, with an aperture in the bottom leading into a receiver, in which the urine was collected.

Experiment 1.-A rabbit, weighing 34 lbs., was fed on cabbage, milk and water; the urine passed next day was feebly alkaline, specific gravity 1020, and free of albumen: the animal was then bled to 6 drachms, and fed on fresh grass and warm milk; the urine examined next day presented the same reaction and specific gravity, but became distinctly opalescent by heat and nitric acid.

Experiment 2.-A dog, weighing 18lbs., was fed on milk and stirabout; urine neutral, specific gravity 1020, contained no albumen: the animal was bled to 8 ounces on the 18th August; on the 19th, the urine collected during the previous night was examined and found neutral, specific gravity 1030; it contained a trace of albumen. Examined again on the 20th, the urine was found alkaline; its specific gravity had fallen to 1020, still a trace of albumen. Aug. 21, specific gravity 1022; albumen as on yesterday. The quantity of blood taken in the experiments was deter mined by the estimate of Welker, according to which the total quantity in the body of an animal is equal to th its weight.

When the quantity of albumen held in solution is very small, the microscope affords much aid in its detection. If a drop of the suspected liquid be placed on a slip of glass in the field of the microscope, and a drop of nitric acid be added, a cloud of minute vesicles will be observed to pass slowly over the field of view; and if the line of advance of this cloud be closely observed, the suddenness with which the constituent vesicles start into view from an apparently structureless fluid, cannot fail to arrest attention. These minute bodies present a highly refractive margin, with a light centre, and an average diameter of th part of an inch.

Experiment 3.-A young dog, weighing 12lbs. 7oz., was next subjected to experiment. The urine collected before operating was free of albumen and alkaline, specific gravity 1005. Blood was now drawn from the jugular vein to the amount of 5 ounces, and into the aperture in the vessel was injected 3ss of fresh dilute ov.-albumen having the temperature and density of blood-serum. Bread and warm milk were given as food, and ravenously eaten. The following day it was found that no urine had been passed in the interim; the second day after (Aug. 27th), 4 ounces of urine were collected, neutral in reaction, of specific gravity 1030, and highly albumenous, being almost gelatinized by heat and nitric acid. The albumen was coagulated and collected by filtration, dried, pulverized, and freed from impurities by ether and boiling water, subsequently dried and incinerated; the total quantity of pure albumen thus obtained was 9 grains. In order to determine what proportion of this was due to the ov-albumen injected, and what, if any, to the ser-albumen discharged in consequence of the bleeding, I ascertained the amount of pure dried albumen yielded by half an ounce of the white of egg, and found it to be 72 grains.

I had expected, and probably would have found, had the operative part of the experiment been in all respects successful, a balance in favour of the albumen excreted in the urine, as compared with the quantity contained in half an ounce of the white of egg, but unfortunately, at the moment when the last portion of albumen was injected, and before a ligature could be applied to the open vessel, the dog struggled violently and caused a fresh loss of blood, with probably a more than proportionate loss of the albumen injected, as the bleeding occurred chiefly by regurgitation from the heart. Five ounces of urine were obtained from this dog on 28th August, but containing no trace of albumen.

With regard to the action of urea on the blood-corpuscles, when exposed for a few hours to a concentrated solution of urea, the corpuscles become tumid and many entirely disappear; the action, however, is slow and feeble.

The proportion of albumen in the different dropsical effusions next engaged my attention. If the hypothesis be well-founded, namely, that albuminaria is the result of au effort of the blood to restore the equilibrium between its corpuscles and albumen by ridding itself of a portion of the latter, then we might not unreasonably expect to find the blood-serum effused coincidently into the cellular tissue and serous cavities, bearing evidence of the same tendency by containing an excess of albumen. With the view of determining this point by comparison between the fluids of renal and cardiac dropsy, I analysed the serum obtained by acupuncture from two cases of renal anasarca, and compared the results with those obtained by Andral from his analyses of the serum of cardiac dropsy. The proportion of albumen obtained by Andral ranged between 4 and 48 parts in a thousand; in my two analyses the proportion was 12 and 24 per thousand respectively. I should desire, before coming to any definite conclusion on this point, to pursue this portion of the inquiry still further.

The inherent property of quantitative adjustment in the blood would appear to have reference mainly to nutrition, which requires as an essential condition for its healthy exercise, certain fixed mutual proportions between the constituent elements of the blood. The maintenance of the normal relative density of the serum and corpuscles is obviously subserved also by this property.

The appearance of albumen in the urine is either transitory or persistent. When transitory, it is produced either by an error of excess in the use of proteine substances, of which the blood seeks to relieve itself through the kidneys; or by a state of congestion of these organs, in which the blood-serum transudes to walls of the renal capillaries and is discharged with the urine. When persistent, it is probably always the result of continued loss or solution of the blood-corpuscles, and produced by an

inherent self-regulating property in the blood, by which the normal relative proportion between its constituent elements is sought to be re-established.

In acute renal dropsy the point de départ in the blood-changes would appear to be loss of albumen; but in the chronic form of the disease attended with uræmia, the starting-point probably is solution of the corpuscles.

The loss of albumen experienced by the blood in Bright's disease would appear to be inversely proportioned to the quantity which appears in the urine, and probably in the dropsical effusion.

The quantity of fibrine in the blood is regulated in great part by that of the corpuscles, not by " adjustment," but in virtue of the causal relation subsisting between the disintegration of the one and the production of the other.

Diminution by removal, therefore, of the quantity of globules in the blood will not necessarily cause elimination of the fibrine, because it involves diminished production of the latter; but the converse of the proposition will not hold, as diminished proportion of fibrine, by whatever cause produced, may give rise to elimination of the blood-corpuscles in the form of hæmorrhage.

On certain Pathological Characters of the Blood Corpuscles.
By J. P. HENNESSY.

The author stated the results of his microscopical observations on healthy blood, and on inflamed blood. The result to which he directed particular attention was, that in inflamed blood the corpuscles were smaller and darker than in healthy blood. In corroboration of his views, he quoted the remarks of M. Donne, of Mr. Wharton Jones, Mr. Gulliver, and many others. Upon this change of size Mr. Hennessy founded a theory of inflammation; the increase of temperature, the occurrence of the buffy coat and the other phenomena being satisfactorily explained.

Dr. LANKESTER laid on the table a number of the Tables issued by the Committee for the Registration of Periodic Phenomena. These Tables were filled up, but he complained that every year persons took the tables, promising to fill them in, but failed to send them to the Committee.

On the Alternation of Generations and Parthenogenesis in Plants and Animals. By E. LANKESTER, M.D., F.R.S.

The author, after alluding to the phenomena of "Alternation" as described by Steenstrup in the Entozoa, Medusa, and Sertularian polyps, and to the phenomena of Parthenogenesis, described by Owen and Von Siebold, concluded his paper as follows:-"If we turn now to the vegetable kingdom, we find perfectly analogous phenomena presenting themselves. In fact, the modifications of the reproductive function, which have recently excited so much surprise in the animal kingdom, are the normal forms of the function among plants. In the roots and branches of a tree we have a gigantic 'nurse,' and the buds are its progeny. Just as we find the same secondary products called 'gemmæ,' in animals either remaining adherent to their parent-stocks, as in the Sertularian and other zoophytes, or floating off, as in Hydra and many others, so we find the buds of plants remaining attached to the tree, or becoming separated from it. Just, too, as we find a different form assumed by the secondary offspring of the nurse,' as in the scolex-head of the cystic-worm, so we find in such cases as those presented by the 'bulbillus,' the ‘bulb,' and the 'sporule,' different forms assumed by parts having the same relations in the plant as in the animal. So likewise in the plant we find a greater change of the secondary offspring taking place, when sexes are developed and flowers are produced, and the hermaphrodite flower, with its stamens and pistils, is the representative of the segments (proglottides) of the tape-worm, with its male and female apparatus in a common envelope. We may go yet further with our analogies in the vegetable kingdom. Here also we have numerous cases in which the germ-cell, the ovule, is produced, and developes within itself an embryo, quite independent of the influence of the sperm-cell, the pollen." The paper was illustrated by the following diagram :

1857.

8

On the Flow of the Lacteal Fluid in the Mesentery of the Mouse,
By JOSEPH LISTER, F.R.C.S.E.

The objects of the experiments were twofold-1st, to ascertain the character of the flow of the chyle under ordinary circumstances, which he believed had never yet been satisfactorily done; and 2ndly, to endeavour to throw some light upon the debated question, whether or not the lacteals were capable of absorbing solid matter in the form of granules visible to the human eye. In the first set of experiments, a mouse having been put under the influence of chloroform an hour or two after partaking of a full meal of bread and milk, the abdomen was laid open by a longitudinal median incision, and a fold of intestine drawn out gently so that it might lie on a plate of glass under the microscope, the exposed part being occasionally moistened with water of the temperature of 100° F. Under these circumstances, the lacteals were very readily visible as beautiful transparent beaded cords; the beads corresponding to the situations of the valves, which were seen to be standing open, while chyle-corpuscles moved on through the tubes with perfectly equable flow; as a rule equal to about a quarter of that at which the blood moves through the capillaries. These observations were frequently repeated, and always with the same result. Hence it was clear that the lacteals, though known to be muscular, and richly provided with valves, do not, in the mesentery at least, promote the flow of the chyle by contraction, rhythmical or otherwise; and that the source of the movement of the fluid is some cause in constant and steady operation. It was further observed that the chyle-corpuscles were, many of them, already of full size, although at so short a distance from the scene of absorption, proving the rapidity with which those corpuscles are elaborated.

The other set of experiments were performed in the same way, except that some coloured material, generally indigo, was mixed with the bread and milk. The animals took the mixture readily, and it passed freely along the intestines, but no indigo particles were ever seen in the chyle, although, had it been absorbed in the solid form, it would have been detected with the utmost facility within the lacteals. It might be supposed that the colouring matter had acted as a poison, and paralysed the function of absorption; but there was no appearance of this, the chyle flowing just as rapidly as when the mice were fed with simple bread and milk. These facts, though not perhaps absolutely conclusive, seemed to throw great doubt on the possibility of absorption of solid matter by the lacteals.