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sedative, but, on the contrary, stimulant and touic, renderingthe action of the heart more powerful, and increasing thetension in the bloodvessels. The indications for its use in disease were thereby revolutionised, and at the same time Irendered more exact, and the striking benefits which werenow afforded by the use of this substance in most diseaseswere made available to humanity.The introduction of anaesthetics into medical practice has

certainly produced more benefit than that of any class otsubstances. The insensibility which they produce is a con-dition which can be readily established by the most crudemethod of experiment, as it requires merely the exhibitionof the substance and the observation of the effect ; and thissimple process of investigation is that by which their intro-- duction was effected. Following upon this introduction andthe wide extension of their employment, however, it wassoon found that insensibility was not their only effect.They produced insensibility, but they also produced otheractions, which assumed a grave importance, as they wereoccasionally sufficient to destroy life. The nature of theseadditional actions became, therefore, a matter of interest,for upon them apparently depended many questions govern-ing the indications for the use of anaesthetics, and the treat-ment which should be adopted in order to avert or counteracttheir dangerous effects. No sufficient light, however, could bethrown upon them by the simple experiments which weresufficient to prove that these substances produce insensibility.By observing the phenomena presented by a patient in theanaesthetic condition, the mechanism by which the dangerouseffects were caused could not be revealed. It could not evenbe detercnined whether death were produced by an actionupon the brain or upon the heart, or upon the respiration.Tne necessity for extending the investigation of their actionto lower animals, in whom the experimental conditions couldbe controlled and varied, became obvious ; and the researcheswhich have already been undertaken by Hermann, Bert,Ferguson, Coates, and McKendrick have furnished muchinformation with regard to those difficulties, that could notbe solved by mere observation of effects in human beings.They have provided indications for forming an opinion ofthe relative dangerousness of many anæsthetics, of the classof cases in which each should be specially avoide3, and ofthe means by which their dangerous actions may best becounteracted ; and it is needless to remark that, if resultsof such importance can be obtained by no other means thanby experiments upon the lower animals, the performance ofsuch experiments is an imperative duty.

Pharmacology, the science of remedies, must be foundedupon experiments performed upon living animals. An Acthas been passed imposing restrictions of the most harassing,description upon those who are engaged in such research.Only the other day I experienced the mortification of beingrefused a licence for performing a few experiments on

rabbits and frogs with a reputed poison. If this be an activesubstance it is impossible to predict what advantages mightbe gained from its use in the treatment of disease. That theinfliction of pain would be only trivial will be apparentwhen I state that the only operation for which permissionwas requested was the subcutaneous injection of the poison.If this method of research be denied to us, what meansare we to adopt to increase the resources of our art ?

THE

INTERNATIONAL MEDICALCONGRESS,

SECTION II.—PHYSIOLOGY.IT was, we venture to think, a wise decision on the part

of the officers of the Physiological Section of the InternationalCongress to discourage the reading of isolated papers, andto devote the greater part of the time at the disposal of thesection to discussions on subjects of primary importance ;for it is the special function of academies and societies tolisten to 9.ad to study the detailed result-i of scientific work,whilst in such meetings as those of the Congress the for-tuitous assemblage of men of all countries offers opportunitiesas rare as they are valuable of eliciting opinions on widequestions, which in some cases have been looked at from

different points of view because of the national partisanshipwhich tends to obtrude itself even into the treatment of

scientific questions.When we mention that in addition to the general body

of English physiological workers, such men as Donders,Brown - Séquard, Chauveau, Goltz, Kronecker, Loven,Panum, Lépine, François-Franck, Wood, and many otherswell-known to European science attended the meetings, andin many cases took a very active part in the discussions ofthe section, the reader will be prepared to believe that thework done was possessed of real interest, and that thedebates are not likely to be barren of useful results. Tosome of the more interesting of these debates we desire todirect attention in the present article.

After the President had opened the work of the section bythe learned discourse which has already appeared in ourcolumns, and which was not intended as a vainglorious reocital of the achievements of our forefathers, but rather as anencouragement to the young English physiological schoolto assert for itself a position worthy of its high descent, animportant discussion on the Localisation of the Functions ofthe Cerebral Convolutions was opened by Professor Goltzof Strasburg-a discussion which, whether we consider theinterest of the subject to the physician, as well as to thephysiologist, or that it afforded an opportunity for ProfessorGoltz on the one hand, and Professor Ferrier on the other,to bring before the meeting their own special, and, to acertain extent, widely opposed views, must be looked uponas first, not only in point of time, but first also in im-portance, in interest, and in probable good to science, of thenumerous discussions held in the section.

Professor Goltz, who spoke in German and who, by theremarkable clearness of his discourse aud the distinct andmeasured tones in which it was pronounced, set an example ofthe mode in which to address an international assembly, com-menced by a brief historical reference to the earlier researchesof Hitzig and Fritsch, of Ferrier and of Munk, which hadled those observers to localise certain motor and certain sen.sory functions in particular regions on the surface of thehemispheres. Convinced that the method of stimulationwhich had been chiefly (though it is true not alone) prac-tised was not capable of throwing full light upon the ques-tion of localisation, Professor Goltz commenced, six yearsago, experiments in which he sought to determine whatdegree of truth attached to the assertion of Flourens, thatlarge parts of the brain of living animals may be removedwithout there resulting any apparent loss of cerebral function.The method which Professor Goltz first employed consisted, ashe reminded the section, of exposing the surface of the brain,and then washing away large portions of its substance by subjecting it to the action of a powerful stream of water. Itwas found that the statement of Flourens could not beaccepted without reservatiun. After the decktriietion in theway indicated of large parts of one side of the brain, thereresults, for instance, hemiplegia, which is, however, not per-manent but transient, with cross blindness. After destruc-tion of large parts of both hemispheres by the same method,Goltz found that there was produced a permanent affection ofthe senses, which were observed to be dulled to an extraordinarydegree, without being, however, lost. During the last twoyears, Professor Goltz, abandoning his earlier "washing-away " method, has destroyed limited parts of the cerebralsurface by means of circular d’il!s with cutting andtearing edges, which, when rapidly rotated, destroy thepart of the brain in which they are placed. By removinglarge parts of the skull cap, and using such instruments,Professor Goltz has plOdnced either very localised or veryextensive Lsiona, of which he has studied the results; thedog being invariably the animal chosen for experiment. Theresults differed according as the anterior or posterior halvesof the uppr surface of the convolutions were destroyed.Without referring in detail to the various experiments ofProfessor Goltz, we have to draw special attention to his re-markable assertion that in the dog, after removal by hisprocedure of the greater part of the grey matter of thehemispheres, of the motor areas, and ot the sensory areas,the animal may recover and live for lung periods of time,without exhibiting any definite paralysis whatever. Sucha a,

dog, according to Professor Goltz, can see, taste, smell, feel,yet all the-.e senses are dulled. It can move, yet its move-ments are clumsy. It has none of the paralysis of movement,and none of the looses of special senses, which the doctrinesof Ferrier and of Munk would lead us to predict. But isthe creature entirely normal? No, as Professor Goltz pro.

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ceeded to state. Though the animal is not stone blind, andcan see, hear, and feel in a certain manner, yet perception isgreatly interfered with and the intellectual functions areweakened; the dog is in the condition of one demented, andmany of its instincts are found to be perverted.

Professor Ferrier succeeded Professor Goltz, and stated inlimine that he was prepared to accept the facts of so eminentan observer, though he rejected his conclusions. Until itis proved that the phenomena observed by Professor Goltzare dependent upon the grey matter of the hemispheres, itmay be assumed that they are phenomena which require, inthe case of the dog, merely the integrity of the great basalganglion. He called the attention of the section to the fact thatProfessor Goltz’s experiments had been performed entirely ondogs, and he deprecated the drawing of general conclusionsfrom the experiments performed upon one animal species.Without disputing the facts described by Professor Goltz,he would bring before the section other facts observed byhimself in the case of the monkey, and which entirelycorroborated his own views in reference to cerebral localisa-tion. Professor Ferrier pointed out that by Professor Goltz’smethod a simple and definite lesion could not be established.During the last two years, however, he, in associationwith Professor Gerald Yeo, had employed the galvano-cautery for the establishment of perfectly definite lesions, andby using the antiseptic method of treating the wound hadsucceeded in eliminating all chances of inflammation andobtaining a perfect recovery from the actual operative pro-cedure in almost every case. He had thus been able to meetthe objections which had been advanced to his earlier ex-periments-to wit, that he studied for too short a time theeffects of the lesions produced, and he bad been able to ob-serve that definite lesions of localised regions of the surfaceof the monkey’s brain led to definite and persistent paralysesof motion or losses of special senses. Professor Ferrierthen referred in detail to several of his experiments onmonkeys, pointing out that in two of the cases where injuriesof motor areas had been inflicted, not only was there no re-covery, but that when, some months afterwards, post-mortemexaminations were made, there were found descending de-generations affecting the crus cerebri, the pons, and thespinal cord. In a case where a lesion was inflictedupon both occipital lobes and angular gyri, affectingthe supposed centres for vision, there had resultedno paralysis of motion, no loss of smell or hearing or taste,but the animal became stone blind ; its pupils became widelydilated and fixed, and atrophy of the optic nerve ensued.The interest attaching to the discussion on localisation

was greatly enhanced by the fact that whilst Professor Goltzhad brought one of his dogs from Strasburg, Professor Ferrierwas willing to exhibit two monkeys which he had operatedupon some months previously, and in one of which he hadprocured definite motor paralysis and in the other permanentand absolute deafness. On the afternoon of Thursday thesection, joined by such visitors as Professors Charcot andVirchow, adjourned to the Physiological Laboratory ofKing’s College. They had the opportunity of examining thedog in which Professor Goltz asserted that he had removedthe greater part of both hemispheres, including all the sup-posed motor and sensory areas. That the operative pro-cedures to which the animal had been subjected had beenextensive was quite obvious from an examination of itsskull, large gaps in the continuity of the upper and externalwalls of which were felt. Saving some clumsiness in itsmovement?, this dog exhibited singularly little which woulddistinguish it from the normal; it appeared possessed ofconsiderable intelligence, and certainly did not suggest tothe onlookers that it was a dog demented. In startlingcontrast to the dog were two monkeys exhibited by Pro-fessor Ferrier. One of them had been operated upon inthe middle of January, the left motor area having beendestroyed. There had resulted from the operation rightsided hemiplegia, with conjugate deviation of eyes and ofhead. Facial paralysis was at first well marked, butceased after a fortnight. From the first there had beenparalysis of the right leg, though the animal was able to liftit up. The arm it had never been able to use. Lately,rigidity of the muscles of the paralysed limbs had beencoming on. The other monkey, as a consequence of para-lysis of its auditory centres, was apparently entirely un-affected by loud noises, as by the firing of percussion capsin close proximity to its head.

’

What conclusions, it will be asked, are to be drawn fromthese singularly discordant experiments of Professors Goltz

and Ferricr ? As a result of their statements and their demon-strations, are we merely to conclude that the brain of themonkey is constituted differently from that of the dog,and that experiments performed upon the brain of one animalthrow no light upon the functions of the brain of the other ?’Until we know the exact conditions of the experiments in thetwo cases it will be impossible to analyse the results obtained,which may be explicable rather by the extent or depth ofthe lesions inflicted in the two cases than by the hypothesisof a different anatomical conformation. Fortunately the twoeminent experimenters whose graphic accounts of theirwork had been listened to with marked interest by thesection determined upon a line of conduct destined tothrow great light upon their experimental procedures. Onone of the days following the discussion and demonstrationon cerebral localisation Professor Goltz’s dog and ProfessorFerrier’s monkey with motor paralysis were deeply anæs-

thetised, and then killed. The brains were removed, andwere handed to a committee composed of Drs. Klein,Langley, Purser, and Schafer, who have been requested tomake an elaborate anatomical and histological examination,with a view to localising the extent of the lesions inflictedby the experimenters. It may be remarked, however, thatwhen the brains which had been removed from the twoanimals were exhibited in the Physiological Section, itappeared to the onlookers that the lesion in ProfessorFerrier’s case exactly corresponded to that which he hadpredicted; whilst, unquestionably, in Professor Goltz’s experi-ment the experimenter had failed in removing considerableportions of the grey matter of the convolutions, includingparts at least held by Ferrier to be the seat of motor centres.The second debate was opened on Friday by M. François

Franck, on the Mechanism by which the Heart-beat isRegulated and Maintained. M. Franck, we are informed,was unaware until the previous day of the duty which hewas called upon to discharge in opening this debate, yet itwould have been difficult to imagine any duty more efficientlyperformed. M. Franck commenced by giving an account ofour present views of the innervation of the heart, examiningwith great clearness the evidence which exists as to thepath followed by inhibitory and accelerating fibres in theircourse towards the heart, dwelling particularly on theevidence derivable from comparative anatomy, which con-firms the observations made long ago by Augustus Waller,by the aid of his degeneration method, and which provedthat the inhibitory fibres of the vagus are derived from thespinal accessory. M. Franck next dwelt upon the question,Is the rhythmical contractility of the heart due to propertiesinherent in its muscular tissues ? After referring to the firstobservations on the rhythmical contractions of voluntarymuscle made by Brown-Sequard in 1849 and 1853, and bySchiff in 1863, M. François Franck drew special attentionto the experiments made in Ludwig’s laboratory by Me-runowicz, and other observers, and which show that theisolated apex of the frog’s heart, when subjected to the actionof defibrinated blood or serum, beats rhythmically, and to themore recent observations on the same subject by Bernstein,Luchsinger, and by Gaskell.I Dr. Gaskell was the first to speak upon the subject intro-duced by M. François Franck, and he entertained the sectionwith the account of recent studies which he has carried outby the.aid of new methods, and which appear to him to throwlight upon the nature and cause of the natural rhythm of theheart, the nature of inhibition, and the mode in which thevagus inhibits the heart. It would be well-nigh hopeless toexpect our readers to follow an account of Dr. Gaskell’s mostinteresting and suggestive work without the aid of drawings

illustrating his apparatus, and without copies of the tracingswhich he obtained by its aid. We may merely refer to oneof the most important conclusions to which he inclined inhis address to the section-viz,, that the inhibitory actionof the vagus is to be explained by its direct action upon themuscular tissue of the heart, and not upon an intermediatenervous apparatus,—the nerve probably possessing the powerof regulating the transformations of matter in the muscularsubstance, so as to affect the readiness with which thesefibres are influenced by impulses reaching them from themotor centres. According to this view, the vagus would bethe great trophic nerve of the heart.Space will not permit of our referring to the observations

of Dr. Brown-Sequard, of Professor Kronecker or of Dr.Carpenter, who called the attention of the section to theinterest attaching to the study of the movements of theheart of ascidians.

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After the conclusion of this debate Professor Wood ofPhiladelphia opened a debate on Animal Heat, which,unfortunately, could not be continued for lack of time, andinwhich Professor Burdon Sanderson and Professor Kroueekeralone took part. Professor Wood described in an interestingmanner his observations made with the aid of calorimetricalmethods, in reference to the influence of the greatnerve centres on the production and regulation of lieat,and then considered the nature of fever, which he re-

cognised to be a process in which both the meclan-isms of heat production and heat regulation were

at fault. The remarks of Dr. Burdon Sanderson hadreference solely to the errors which had hitherto beeninherent to observations with the calorimeter, and to theremarkable improvements lately introduced into calori-metrical methods by M. D’Ar6onville, who places his calori-meter in chambers of constant temperature and whoemploys the graphic method to record continuously thechanges in the volume of the water of the calorimeter,which correspond to the changes in its temperature. Pro-fessor Kronecker recalled the observations made by him andby a pupil with the aid of his maximum registering ther-mometers, and which proved how great an influence in theproduction of animal heat was exerted by the secretingapparatus situated in the walls of the alimentary canal.The meeting of the section on Monday was opened by a

discussion on the Microscopical Appearances of StripedMuscle during Rest and Contraction. Professor Rutherfordof Edinburgh, who opened the discussion, gave a resume ofthe views hitherto held on this difficult question, and thendetailed the results of his own observations on the muscle ofthe crab prepared by a new method. He entirely supportsthe theory expressed by Kölliker, that the sarcous sub-stance essentially consists of fibrils united by a smallamount of interstitial material. He finds eosine and aniline-blue of much service in differentiating the several parts ofthe fibrils, the sarcous elements and so-called Krause’smembrane being readily stained by them. The sarcouselements are shaped like minute dumb-bells, with a slightswelling in the middle of the shaft, in the position ofHensen’s stripe. The thin dim line in the clear stripe firstdescribed by Dobie of Chester, and commonly namedKrause’s membrane, is due to a row of globules, as Buskand Huxley first indicated. The clear as well as the dimsegments of the fibrils shorten during contraction. Therefractile material of the sarcous elements moves towardstheir ends, leaving the shafts clear. The shafts of theshortened sarcous elements then become the clear stripe,while the original clear stripe is rendered dim by the trans-ference of the refractile material of the sarcous elements tothe immediate neighbourhood of Dobie’s line. This ex-

plains the "reversal of the stripes" in contracted muscle.The different stages of the transition may be clearly tracedafter staining with eosine or aniline blue. A series of pre-parations was shown in illustration and support of thesestatements.

Dr. Haycraft of Sir Josiah Mason’s College, Birmingham,maintained that the fibrils of striped muscle are homoge-neous, and that the stripes are entirely owing to alternateconvexities and concavities, which with the stripes disappearwhile the fibrils are stretched and their calibre rendereduniform. He had imitated the stripes of muscles by pro-ducing concavities and convexities on a glass rod, immersedin Canada balsam. He maintained that the fibrils are staineduniformly by eosine, but that the thin stripe appears moredeeply stained because it occasions convergence of thecoloured rays.

After some remarks by Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Klein, Pro-fessor Rutherford replied that it is impossible to regard thefibrils as homogeneous; for a very diluted solution of eosine,aniline-blue or picrocarmine scarcely stains at all the sub.stance of the clear stripe, while it stains the sarcous ele.ments and globules of Dobie’s line deeply. But even whendyes are not employed it is not difficult to see that the sub-stance of the dim is more refractile than that of the clearstripe, and has a pearly shimmer which the latter has not.When the clear stripe is darkened by altering the focus, itnever acquires the pearly appearance of the real dim stripe.Dr. Haycraft’s statement that the stripes disappear when thefibrils are extended is in direct contradiction to M. Ranvier,who states that it is by stretching that the stripes are ren-dered most evident. Dr. Rutherford did not deny that, asin a red blood-corpuscle, the convergent rays form the convexmargin and the divergent rays form the concave centre

cannot be focussed by a lens at the same moment. Whenone is in focus and appear!’! light, the other is out of focusand appears dim; so in muscle curvature produces similareffects, but these are merely superadded to the far more im-portant effects of difference in structure and chemical com-position in the cour.:e of the fibrils which Dr. Ha craftsingularly enough ignored, notwithstanding clear evidenceto the contrary.The last discussion, on the Vaso-Dilator Nerves, was

opened on Tuesday morning by Professor Morat, who in thecourse of his remarks drew attention to researches made byProfessor Dastre and himself, which have led them to thevery interesting conclusion that certain of the vaso-dilatorfibres of the head and neck, after issuing from the spinalcord, make their way primarily into sympathetic trunks.The French observers discovered that on stimulatiug thedistal end of the combined vagus and sympathetic nerves inthe neck of the dog there results remarkable dilatation ofthe mucous membranes lining the lips, covering the hardpalate, and lining the nasal cavities ; this dilatation is uni-lateral, and on the side opposite to that of the nerve stimu-lated. By dividing the vagus very high up, and in other casesthe sympathetic, MM. Dastre and Murat were able to cliscoverthat the effect which they had observed was due to a stimu.lation of fibres contained in the sympathetic, and subse-quently that these fibres were contained in the rami com-municantes of the second and third dorsal nerves, into whichthey passed through the inter mediation of the anterior rootsof the corresponding spinal nerves.

This debate on the innervation of blood veins was takenpart in by Professors Brown-Sequard, Goltz, Lépine, Dastre,and Dr. Roy. The latter distinguished young physiologistdrew attention to his recent researches on the circulationthrough the kidney and spleen, made with the aid of appa-ratus which is essentially constructed on the principle ofthe plethysmograph. In the case of these two organs, Dr.Roy has failed to find any evidence of the existence ofvaso-dilator nerves. We may merely refer to the remark-able and hitherto unsuspected fact which Dr. Roy hasdiscovered-viz., that the spleen is the seat of perfectlyrhythmical contractions and dilatations, and that in the caseof the kidney effects are produced upon the renal circula-tion by drugs introduced into the blood, even after divisionof all the nerves going to the organs.The space at our disposal has only permitted of our re-

ferring but too briefly to some of the most important debatesconducted in the Physiological Section. We have been coiii-pelled to omit here all mention of interesting communicationsby Drs. Klein, Pavy, Arthur Ransome, Bocci, and otherscientific members present. We must, however, refer to thefact that daily demonstrations of physiological instrumentstook place, and that on Tuesday afternoon, after the properwork of the section had concluded, a large number of themembers adjourned to University College, where they hadan opportunity of studying the admirable arrangements ofthe new Jodrell laboratory and of witnessing an interestingseries of demonstrations by Professor Burdon-Sanderson.illustrating his researches on Dionea, and some electricalexperiments by Professor Loven, who had not only favouredthe Congress by his presence, but had brought for the in-

spection of its members a very admirable modification ofLipmann’s electrometer, and a pair of interesting mercurytelephones.Thus ended the scientific work of a section of the Inter.

! national Congress which, at least as much as any section de-. voted to directly practical ends, tended by its labours to ad.

vance the progress of medicine. The success of this section,, which could not have been achieved but for the co-operation! of the numerous foreign physiologists who joined its ranks

and contributed to its debates, testifies to the respect and ap-. preciation in which our new English physiological school is. held in foreign countries. We must, however, not forget thatthat school suffers under disabilities and is hindered by oppo-. sition which threatens its very existence. The physiologists. during the late Congress appealed to the sympathy of their, colleagues of the medical profession, and that sympathy was: freely and ungrudgingly given them. We trust, however,, that one of the fruits of the Congress will be an agita-

tion carried on by the medical profession in this country, and abroad which shall, by educating the people, succeed- in sweeping away a legislative enactment which is a

s blot upon the statute book, a hindrance to the progressc of science, and therefore opposed to the best interests of3 mankind.