towards the aboral side, the stomach forms the well-known pentagonal "pyloric sac." The pyloric sac gives off five radial ducts, each of which divides into two tubules bearing a number of lateral follicles, whose secretions are poured into the pyloric sac and intestine. The author has proved the nature of their secretion to be similar to that of the pancreatic fluid of the Vertebrata ( Edinburgh, Roy. Soc. Proc.,' No. 125, p. 120). Recently, the secretion found in the five pouches of the stomach (of Uraster) has been submitted to a careful chemical and microscopical examination. With a quantity of the secretion, obtained from a large number of starfishes, the following experiments were performed:

1. The clear liquid from these sacs was treated with a hot dilute solution of sodium hydrate. On the addition of pure hydrochloric acid, a slight flaky precipitate was obtained, after standing seven and a half hours. These flakes when examined beneath the microscope (-in. obj.) were seen to consist of various crystalline forms, the predominant forms being those of the rhomb. On treating the secretion alone with alcohol rhombic crystals are deposited, which are soluble in water. When these crystals are treated with nitric acid and then gently heated with ammonia, reddish-purple murexide is obtained, crystallised in microscopic prisms.

2. Another method was used for testing the secretion. It (the secretion) was boiled in distilled water and evaporated carefully to dryness. The residue obtained was treated with absolute alcohol and filtered. Boiling water was poured upon the residue, and to the aqueous filtrate an excess of acetic acid was added. After standing some hours, crystals of uric acid were deposited and easily recognised by the chemico-microscopical tests mentioned above.

The above alcoholic filtrate was tested for urea. First of all, the alcoholic solution was diluted with distilled water, and boiled over a water-bath until all the alcohol had vaporised. The warm aqueous solution (A) remaining was now tested for urea, in the following

manner:

(a.) On the addition of a solution of mercuric nitrate to a portion of the above solution, no white precipitate was obtained.

(b.) To another portion of the solution (A), a solution of sodium hypochlorite was added. No bubbles of nitrogen were disengaged.

(c.) No crystals of urea nitrate were formed in a small quantity of the solution (A) [concentrated by evaporation] after the addition of nitric acid.

(d.) The distillation of a small quantity of the solution (A) with

pure sodium carbonate, in a chemically clean Wurtz's flask attached to a small Liebig's condenser, failed to produce in the distillate any coloration with Nessler's reagent.

The above tests clearly prove the entire absence of urea in the secretion under examination. No guanin or calcium phosphate could be detected in the secretion, although the author has found the latter compound as an ingredient in the renal secretions of the Cephalopoda and the Lamellibranchiata (Edinburgh, Roy. Soc. Proc., vol. 14, p. 230).

From this investigation, the isolation of uric acid proves the renal function of the five pouches of the stomach of the Asteridea.

II. The Salivary Glands of Sepia officinalis anl Patella vulgata.

The author has already made a study of the nephridia and the so-called "livers" in both these forms of the Invertebrata (see the memoirs, loc. cit.). Since then he has studied the chemicophysiological reactions of the secretion produced by the salivary glands of the cuttle-fish and the limpet, these organisms representing two important orders of the Mollusca.

(1.) Sepia officinalis.

There are two pairs of salivary glands in Sepia officinalis. The posterior pair, which are the largest, lie on either side of the cesophagus. The secretion of the posterior glands is poured into the œsophagus, while the secretion of the smaller anterior pair of glands passes directly into the buccal cavity. A quantity of the secretion was extracted by using several freshly killed cuttle-fishes. It was alkaline to test-papers. A portion of the secretion was added to a small quantity of starch, the starch being converted into glucose sugar in 15 minutes. The presence of glucose was proved by the formation of red cuprous oxide by the action of Fehling's solution. The soluble zymase (ferment) contained in the secretion (which is capable of causing the hydration of starch), was isolated by precipitating the secretion with dilute normal phosphoric acid, adding limewater and then filtering. The precipitate produced was dissolved in distilled water and reprecipitated by alcohol. This precipitate converts starch into glucose sugar.

fall into a beaker mucin are easily

When a drop of the clear secretion is allowed to containing dilute acetic acid, stringy flakes of obtained. The presence of mucin was confirmed by several wellknown tests.

Another portion of the secretion was distilled (with the utmost care) with dilute sulphuric acid, and to the distillate ferric chloride solution was added, which gave a red colour, indicating the presence of sulphocyanates.

The inorganic constituent, as far as the author could make out,

consists only of phosphate of calcium. No calcium carbonate could be detected.

There is much in favour of the supposition that the diastatic ferment in these secretions is produced as the result of the action of nervefibres (from the inferior buccal ganglion) upon the protoplasm of the epithelium cells of the glands.

The author intends to examine various organs in other genera and species of the Decapoda, especially those inhabiting the Japanese

seas.

(2.) Patella vulgata.

The two salivary glands of Patella are well-marked and situated anteriorly to the pharynx, lying beneath the pericardium on one side and the renal and anal papillæ on the other. They are of a yellowishbrown colour and give off four ducts. The secretion of these glands was examined by the same method applied to the salivary glands of Sepia officinalis, and with similar results.

The following table represents the constituents found in the salivary secretions of the two orders of the Mollusca already investigated:

Investigations indicate that the salivary glands of the Cephalopoda and Gasteropoda are similar in physiological function to the salivary glands of the Vertebrata.

*'Edinburgh, Roy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 14, p. 236.

II. "Muscular Movements in Man, and their Evolution in the Infant: a Study of Movement in Man, and its Evolution, together with Inferences as to the Properties of Nervecentres and their Modes of Action in expressing Thought.". By FRANCIS WARNER, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician to the London Hospital and Lecturer on Botany in the London Hospital Medical College. Communicated by Professor J. HUTCHINSON, F.R.S. Received June 12, 1888.

(Abstract.)

Movements as signs of brain action have long been studied by the physiologist; but before proceeding to give an account of the visible evolution of voluntary movement in man, it is necessary to define the different classes of movements seen, indicating the criteria by which the observer may be guided in the examples before him. Movements may be classed according to the parts moving, the time, and the quantity of each movement. These are the only intrinsic attributes of such acts. If the nerve-centres which send stimuli to the muscles are acting in equilibrio, the static outcome is seen in the postures resulting in the body; hence postures are signs of the ratios of action in the nerve-centres, and indicate their present state or mode of action. Typical postures and movements are described. A variation in the ratios of action in the centres leads to visible movement. Certain postures and movements are found by experience to correspond to certain recognised brain states. Movements may occur in combinations and in series; special combinations and series of movements determine the outcome of the action of which they are component parts. It is shown that the time of action in the various centres thus determines the outcome of the action, and is itself controlled by impressions received through the senses. When movements are seen, not controlled by present circumstances, they are probably the result of antecedent or inherited impressions; such are called spontaneous.

Section II. Evolution of Movements in Man.

The new-born infant presents constant movement in all its parts while it is awake, and this is not controlled by impressions from without. Graphic tracings of such movements are given. This spontaneous movement in the infant appears to be of great physiological importance, and is here termed "microkinesis." It is argued that the mode of brain action which produces microkinesis is analogous to the action producing spontaneous movements in all young animals, and to the modes of cell-growth which produce circumnutation in

young seedling plants. It is argued that as circumnutation becomes modified by external forces to the modes of movement termed heliotropism, geotropism, &c., so microkinesis in the infant is replaced by the more complicated modes of brain action as evolution proceeds. The conditions of movement are then described, as seen at successive stages of development of the child, and it is shown that they become less spontaneous, and more under control of stimuli acting upon the child from without, while the phenomena termed memory and imitation are evolved.

Section III. Properties of Nerve-centres and their Modes of Action. From observations made, descriptions are given of the modes of action and properties of nerve-centres in adult age, such descriptions being given in terms implying visible movements. Impressionability, imitation, and retentiveness are thus described. Nerve-centres are said to be "free" when only slightly stimulated. Delayed expression of impressions are seen when the visible outcome is delayed after the stimulus which produced it. Double-action is said to occur when a local effect and a distant one, occur from one impression. Compound cerebral action is said to occur, when the study of the visible movements indicates that successive unions of centres are in action, leading to a visible outcome well adapted to the primary stimulus which produced the series. When a slight stimulus leads to a spreading area of movements producing considerable force, the phenomenon is termed reinforcement.

From observations made, two hypotheses are put forward. It is suggested that when a well co-ordinated movement follows a slight stimulus, the impression produces temporary unions among the centres, preparing them for the special combinations and series of actions which are seen to follow. Such unions among nerve-centres appear to be formed when a period of cerebral inhibition, produced by a word of command, is seen to be followed by a co-ordinated series of acts. A graphic tracing indicating suspension of microkinesis to the stimulus of sight and sound is given. It is further suggested that the brain action corresponding to thought, is the formation of functional unions among cells, whose outcome is seen in the movements which express the thought, or its physical representation. Properties similar to those described in brain centres may be illustrated in modes of growth. Intelligence is then not a property of the brain, per se, but for its manifestation certain modes of brain action are necessary. In the special postures and movements described, a number of physical signs of brain states are offered to the clinical observer.