On the Uses of the Uvula. By Sir DUNCAN GIBB, Bart., M.D. The author commenced by saying that the true functional uses of the uvula had never been wholly understood, and then entered into a description of its composition, situation, and relation to neighbouring muscles. Anatomists describe the action of the uvular muscle as an elevator, and as therefore shortening the uvula. It is, however, a sentinel to the fauces, especially in the act of deglutition; for when any substance comes into contact with it, it excites the action of all the neighbouring muscles until that is got rid of. But it possesses a function of not less importance in holding the soft palate tense and firm in the medial line against the wall of the pharynx during the act of deglutition itself, and thus prevents the passage upwards of fluid or solid substances behind the nose. This was supported by experiments upon a person who had lost the bones of the nose, permitting of a view of the action of the soft palate from its nasal aspect during deglutition, with or without food. Under either circumstance, a double arch was seen in the form of two convex swellings, held in a state of firm tension by the action of the uvula pressing down the centre of the soft palate, with its end resting flat against the wall of the pharynx. There was the motor uvula muscle situated superficially, like a distinct band, tied round the soft palate in its most important resisting part, to prevent the possibility of food passing upwards, and in this it was supported coordinately by all the neighbouring muscles concerned in the act of deglutition. There also was a fact not previously known-viz. the action of the uvula as a point d'appui in holding the soft palate tense in the middle line against the pharynx during deglutition, at the same time that the muscle acted as a compressor of the soft palate itself. Its tension ceased the moment that the constrictors of the pharynx had fully exerted their influence over the substances swallowed. Whilst the uvula has its special uses in the act of deglutition, it exerts a not less decisive influence upon the voice when uttered in a very loud tone, or in singing the higher registers, in both sexes; then its character as a levator or shortener is exerted. If this power is impaired by removal of the muscular (not the membranous) end, then the singing powers are damaged. The author now described the appearance and action of the uvula as seen in singing the higher notes, its point becoming almost invisible, and the soft palate being drawn backwards and upwards, diminishing the space between it and the wall of the pharynx. The movements of the uvula are exceedingly rapid, and vary with the continuous or quavering character of the singing notes. In the shakes of the voice it is seen to be undergoing a series of short ups and downs, at every inspiration descending, and then rapidly ascending, and keeping up until the note, prolonged or otherwise, is finished. Some remarks were made upon elongation of the uvula and its effects, a distinction being made between its elongated membranous end and the true muscular tip which should not be meddled with. Speech, the author said, was modulated by the soft palate and uvula, and the motor power of the latter is unquestionably exerted in pronouncing the letters K, Q, and X, with their associations, more especially the gutturals of the various languages. He summed up the uses of the uvula as follows:-"1. It acts as a" sentinel to the fauces in exciting the act of deglutition when anything has to be swallowed. 2. It compresses the soft palate and holds its posterior free border firmly against the wall of the pharynx in deglutition, so that nothing can pass upwards. 3. It modifies speech in the production of loud declamation and the guttural forms of language by lessening or diminishing the pharyngo-nasal passage when it acts as an elevator. 4. Its elevating power is increased to the most extreme degree in the highest ranges of the singing voice, and is very moderately exerted in the lower ranges. 5. Therefore, in its uses, deglutition and vocalisation are the functions that are intimately associated with the uvula, and both become impaired more or less if it is destroyed, wholly removed, or seriously injured." On some Abnormalities of the Larynx. By Sir DUNCAN GIBB, Bart., M.D. The author described a rare instance of absence of both arytenoid cartilages in a girl of eighteen. Likewise one in which the epiglottis possessed the shape of a trefoil leaf, and two others in boys of fissure of the same cartilage. All these were congenital, and were explained by means of diagrams. On the Caudal and Abdominal Muscles of the Cryptobranch. On the Existence of Hæmoglobin in the Muscular Tissue, and its relation to Muscular Activity. By E. RAY LANKESTER. The author demonstrated to the Section, by means of the spectroscope, that hæmoglobin existed in certain muscles of the gasteropodous mollusks, viz. the active muscles which move the lingual ribbon and lips; at the same time the blood of these gasteropods is entirely devoid of hæmoglobin, being colourless. This was considered a proof of the functional relation of hæmoglobin to muscular activity, and coincided with the results attained by Ludwig, who demonstrated the absolute necessity of the presence of oxygen in a muscle in order that it should be active; the hæmoglobin, by its oxygen-seizing power, acts in the same way for the muscular respiration as it does in those exceptional invertebrata which, living in foul conditions, are, as the author showed, provided with hæmoglobin in their blood, thus being enabled to accumulate what little oxygen there is present. On the Ciliated Condition of the Inner Layer of the Blastoderm in the Ova of Birds and in the Omphalomesenteric Vessels. By B. T. LowNE. On the Bearing of Muscular Anomalies on the Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species. By Professor A. MACALISTER, M.D. On a New Form of Tetanometer. By Dr. M'KENDRICK. On the Nutrition of Muscular and Pulmonary Tissue in Health and in Phthisis, with Remarks on the Colloid Condition of Matter. By WILLIAM MARCET, M.D., F.R.S., late Senior Assistant Physician to the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton, and to the Westminster Hospital, London. The author sums up the conclusions at which he has arrived as follows:1. Phosphoric acid and potash may be prepared artificially in the colloid state by dialyzing a mixture of chloride of potassium and phosphate of soda. 2. Wheaten flour, potato, and rice are found to contain respectively nearly the same proportions of colloid phosphoric acid and colloid potash compared to the total quantities of these substances present; and these same proportions of phosphoric acid and potash are occasionally found to exist also in blood. 3. Plants form colloid material, although they may find some ready prepared, or in process of preparation, in the soil. 4. Muscular tissue in health is formed of three classes of substances: 1st, those which constitute the tissue proper; 2nd, those destined to become transformed into the tissue proper and make up for the waste; 3rd, those which are in process of elimination. The first are solid and colloid, the second fluid and colloid, and the third fluid and crystalloid; the phosphoric acid and potash in the 3rd class of substances occurring precisely in the proportion required to form crystalloid pyrophosphate of potash. This is invariably true for the flesh of oxen, but in the salmon the proportions do not quite agree with those of the above compound, which appears to show that the material in progress of elimination is somewhat less crystalloid in fishes than in the flesh of the higher animals; and this would account for an accumulation of effete matter in the salmon. 5. The blood-corpuscles appear to take up albumen, phosphoric acid, and potash in the blood, and yield them in the proper proportions to muscular tissue for its nutrition; but this subject requires further investigation. 6. The nutrition of pulmonary tissue in health differs from that of muscular tissue, inasmuch as the proportion of phosphoric acid to the albumen in the tissue proper, and consequently also in the nutritive material, is much higher in the lungs than in flesh, and that of the potash in the effete material is much higher proportionally to phosphoric acid in pulmonary than in muscular tissue. This excess of potash is apparently eliminated under the form of carbonate. 7. The nature of the chemical changes which take place within muscles in consumption is the same as in health; but these changes are lessened in degree, the amount of nutritive material supplied being diminished. Moreover, there appears to be in muscular tissue in phthisis a beginning of that separation of water from the solids which, under other circumstances, only occurs some time after death. 8. Muscular tissue in consumption contains more soda and chlorine than in a state of health, in the mean proportion of 0.117 of chlorine, and 0.239 of soda in health, to 0-385 of chlorine and 0.446 of soda in consumption for 200 grammes of flesh, showing apparently that the physical power of diffusion, which had been kept in abeyance in health, begins to act in phthisis. 9. The pulmonary organ in phthisis, when consolidated and softening, still undergoes a process of nutrition; but this phenomenon is different from that which occurs in health, and becomes remarkably like the nutrition of muscular tissue. 10. The pulpy state of the pulmonary tissue in the cheesy or softening condition, appears to be due to an altered relation between the water and solids, the colloid condition of the tissue being either lost or considerably diminished. The diseased organ, moreover, contains less colloid and more effete or crystalloid material than it does in health, these several phenomena showing, as in the case of muscles, a commencement of physical change. 11. Finally, death from consumption, when not due to asphyxia from deficient action of the organs of respiration, is apparently owing to the physical power of matter overcoming the phenomena of life, the nature of which is still a mystery, physical changes actually commencing before life is extinct. A Model of the Circulation of the Blood, by Professor RUTHERFORD, was exhibited. Dietaries in the Workhouses of England and Wales. By Dr. EDWARD SMITH, F.R.S., Medical Officer of the Poor-law Board. The author referred to the fact that schemes of dietary are agreed upon by the combined action of the local authorities, viz. the guardians of the poor, and the central authority; and showed that, as the dietary should correspond with that of the labouring classes, it must vary in different localities, and be based upon local knowledge. The dietary is thus prepared by the guardians and examined and sanctioned by the Poor-law Board. He explained the steps which have recently been taken by the latter to give advice to the former and to establish greatly improved dietaries. This was initiated by the Rt. Hon. C. P. Villiers, who first made the appointment of medical oflicer to the Board, and carried into effect by the Earl of Devon and his successors as Presidents of the Poor-law Board. It is now laid down by that authority that the foods to be selected shall be those in ordinary use in the several localities, and that the kind and quantity of food shall be adapted to the wants of the several classes of inmates. The chief differences of food are found in the quantity of meat supplied and the mode in which it is served, and in the use of oatmeal, cheese, milk, and puddings. On many of these points the dietaries in Dorset and Westmoreland were contrasted. Thus he showed, from inquiries made by him for the Government some years ago, that the quantities of food obtained by the working classes per adult weekly were, in Dorset-bread stuffs, 13 lb.; sugars, 31 oz.; fats, 4 oz.; meat, 7 oz.; milk, 12 oz.; and cheese, 12 oz.; while in Westmoreland the quantities were,-bread stuffs, 12 lb.; sugars, 103 oz.; fats, 6 oz.; meat, 21 oz.; milk, 120 oz.; and cheese, 2 oz. He then showed what is the typical diet of children at various ages, and for able-bodied and aged adults, and the quantity of the several foods allowed in workhouses. Children under two years of age get milk, bread, and rice-pudding daily. From two to five years, pudding on three days, meat and potatoes on three days, and soup or other food on one day. From five to nine years there is one other day of meat and potatoes, and commonly one of soup instead of pudding. From nine to sixteen that of adults. For able-bodied, bread and gruel at breakfast and supper, varied by broth or cheese in the several localities; at dinner, meat in some form on four days, and pudding or cheese on three days. For aged, tea and bread and butter at breakfast and supper; at dinner, meat in some form on five days, with pudding or cheese or other food on two days. The standard of measurement of the sufficiency of this food is that which he gave to the Government when advising on the Lancashire cotton-famine, viz. 4300 grains of carbon and 200 grains of nitrogen daily; and the model dietary which he had framed for workhouses in the Midland Counties supplied more than this to the adults. He then pointed out that, whilst the abovementioned quantity of food supported the health and strength of the inmates, except perhaps as regards children, there are still many workhouses where the dietary is very unsatisfactory. In some, gruel and bread are given at breakfast and supper to nearly all the inmates, or where meat in a separate form is not given, or where a very small quantity, as 2 oz. or 3 oz. of raw meat was allowed two or three times a week, or where bread and cheese alone are given to some classes in eighteen out of twenty-one meals weekly, or where soup containing no meat is given thrice a week, or where meat when given is given only when cold; whilst, on the other hand, there are workhouses in the manufacturing districts where meat and bread are given in great excess. He was of opinion that the time may arrive when the Government will prepare several schemes of dietary for different parts of the country; but in the meantime improvements are now in rapid progress. hibited tables showing the quantities of food taken by the working classes in every county of England and in Wales, and the dietary which he had recommended for use in workhouses in the Midland Counties; and he also read the details of the dietary which Professor Christison had devised for the Edinburgh charity workhouse in 1854, supplying oatmeal and buttermilk at breakfast and supper, and meat soup with bread at dinner. He ex On some Rudimentary Structures recently met with in the Dissection of a large Fin- Whale. By Prof. STRUTHERS. The whale was a specimen of the Razorback (Balanoptera Musculus), 64 feet in length. It was found dead in the North Sea, off Aberdeen, and towed into Peterhead. Searching for a rudiment of the hind limb, the author found it represented by a bone attached by ligaments to the external process of the pelvic bone. He found a sixteenth pair of ribs. The first rib had articulated to it a capitular process 4 to 5 inches in length. The flexor and extensor muscles of the fingers were carefully dissected. The muscles found were the homologues of the following muscles in man-flexor carpi ulnaris, flexor profundus digitorum, flexor longus pollicis, extensor communis digitorum. The flexor carpi ulnaris was inserted into a distinct and moveable pisiform cartilage. These muscles the author regarded as rudimentary structures, whose function was not extinct but low; not to be explained by notions of final cause or of so-called type, but by inheritance and the influence of function; the one, as part of a great scheme of evolution, accounted for their existence, the other, by fitness and use, had preserved them from becoming extinct. On the Cervical Vertebræ in Cetacea. By Prof. STRUTHERS. The paper was directed chiefly to the consideration of the various conditions of stiffness and mobility of the vertebræ, and the various degrees of development of the transverse processes. The seven vertebræ were present as a mammalian affinity, and their conditions are modified by function. The surgeon gives his patient a moveable or a stiff joint according as he desires, by practising either rest or motion, and the same law would no doubt act in the whale's neck. The great ring of the transverse processes contains a large vascular plexus, as it contains an artery in man; but that is not its meaning. It is the walls of the ring which are developed for ligamentous and muscular attachments. The lower processes he divided into three stages, and compared these to three stages of the corresponding parts in man. The ligaments between the axis, atlas, and occiput had been dissected, and he demonstrated their modifications in the whales. One of the great whales was the Peterhead Razorback noticed in the previous paper, the other had stranded at Wick in 1869. The Pike whale, showing the deficient parts of the bony transverse processes to be represented by fibrous bands, had stranded at Aberdeen last year. The next specimens exhibited were from the Narwhal, male and female. Possibly in adaptation to the possession of the great tusk, the vertebræ were moveable, while in the female, without the tusk, they were less moveable. The male showed also an additional joint, on the same side as the tusk, between the atlas and axis. Passing next to the stiff-necked whales, Prof. Struthers exhibited a large series of specimens from the Globiocephalus, obtained from the flock which stranded near Edinburgh some years ago. They showed progressive anchylosis of the vertebræ, and degeneration of the transverse processes. The younger ones showed even the rudiments of the epiphyses of the vertebral bodies, on vertebræ themselves rudimentary. The last neck exhibited was that of a Right whale, the interest attaching to which was that, though probably a Greenland Right whale, it presented more of the characters of the Right whale of the South Sea. The conclusion he drew from the study of this neck was that the supposed differences between the Right whale of the North and South Seas were not so fixed characters as had been supposed. On the Restoration of the Tail in Protopterus annectens. By Professor R. H. TRAQUAIR, M.D. Professor Traquair described two specimens of Protopterus annectens, in which the external configuration and internal structure rendered it evident that a considerable portion of the tail had been broken off, and that in the one case a less, and in the other a greater amount of restoration had taken place. In the first specimen, which measured 81 inches in length, the body was truncated abruptly 3 inches behind the origin of the ventral fins. This truncated termination of the body was fringed by a delicate membrane, projecting half an inch backwards in the middle, and containing a pointed central axis. On dissection the abrupt truncation was equally obvious in the internal parts; and the fringing membrane, with its axis, was evidently a commencing restoration of the injured tail, the central axis containing a minute newly formed notochord, lateral muscles, and spinal cord, but there was as yet no new development of neural or hæmal arches, spines, fin-supports, fin-rays, or scales. In the second specimen, which measured 93 inches in length, and had evidently been truncated or mutilated at a distance of about 7 inches from the tip of the snout, or 13 inch from the origin of the ventral fins, the restorative process had proceeded to a much greater length. Although the boundary between the old and new textures was sufficiently indicated on the outside of the fish, by the sudden diminution in the thickness of the specimen and in the size of the scales, the outline of the posterior extremity of the animal was very well restored, though the whole tail was still proportionately shorter than if no mutilation had taken place. The restored portion of the tail measured 2} inches in length, and on dissection showed not only, as in the former case, a reproduction of the notochord, but also of the neural and hæmal arches, spines, and fin-supports, these elements remaining, however, entirely cartilaginous, and being much more irregularly disposed than in the normal tail. They also cease to be traceable after 1 inch from the commencement of the new portion of the tail, though the notochord proceeds to its ultimate filiform termination. In addition the spinal cord, the lateral muscles, and the fin-rays and their muscles were in this specimen reproduced as well as the scales on the external surface. Both externally and internally the line of demarcation between the old and new textures was distinctly seen. |