NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
Medical Officers of the Army of India.
In cases of secondary fever it is not uncommon to find the lower lobes of
the lungs œdematous and presenting here and there small purulent foci. In
No. 5 this condition was very marked, and sections through one of the abscesses,
about the size of a walnut, showed numerous micrococci, generally in the form
of a streptococcus of three or four heads, both within the vessels and amongst
the pus corpuscles which filled the air cells (Fig. 7). The lungs in No. 9
were in a similar condition.
In No. I there were micrococci in the blood in the vessels, and in extrava-
sations amongst the tubes, of the kidney (Fig. 8). In five other cases a most
careful search failed to show any bacteria in the kidney.
In two cases, both of long duration and with marked secondary fever, there
were ulcers in the stomach. In No. 6 there were two slightly raised deeply
congested patches with smooth bare surfaces, in which, under the microscope,
the glandular tissue appeared to be completely destroyed and infiltrated with
leucocytes, blood-corpuscles, and numerous straight bacilli, some of which had a
spotted appearance, as in the next case. In this, No. 8, the ulcers were three in
number, of the ordinary form, with raised undermined edges and a necrosed
slough in the centre. The surface of the ulcer and of the mucous membrane
near it was thickly covered with clusters of straight bacilli, which penetrated
deeply into the mucous membrane and took the place of the epithelium (Fig.
9). These bacilli were stained deeply at either end, and in the case of the longer
ones at one or more points in the length, so that they had a spotted appearance
as if they contained spores (Fig. 10).
The following methods were employed :—The tissues in all cases were re-
moved as soon as possible from the body and placed at once in alcohol, and,
after hardening in this, they were thoroughly infiltrated in paraffin and cut up
with a Cambridge rocking microtome, to enable the sections to be fixed upon a
cover-glass with a solution of celloidin in clove-oil (Schällibaum's section-fixing
process, vide Lee's Vade Mecum, section 275). The cover-glass is painted
with the thinnest possible film of this solution, and, after the sections in paraffin
have been laid out upon it, warmed gently over a spirit lamp or on a water-bath,
so as to melt the paraffin and evaporate the clove-oil. By this means the sec-
tions are firmly fixed upon the glass and it can be afterwards put through the
staining processes in the same manner as an ordinary cover-glass preparation, the
paraffin being removed by naphtha or other solvent. Any stain that the celloidin
takes up is quickly removed by alcohol. For clearing, clove-oil must generally be
avoided because it loosens the sections, and, as a rule, oil of origanum has been
used, which has also the advantage of not dissolving out aniline stains. By this
fixing process sections so friable as those of a lung infiltrated with pus can be
easily stained and mounted without disturbance of the delicate tissues or loss of
pus corpuscles, &c., while sections of the intestines can be laid out flat and
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Scientific Memoirs by Medical Officers of the Army of India.
untwisted with all the sloughs, mucous, blood and other corpuscles accurately in
situ, and, consequently, can be more satisfactorily examined for bacteria than
when freezing or other methods of making sections are adopted. Three, four, or
even more sections, according to their size, and either consecutive or otherwise,
can be fixed upon a large cover-glass and thoroughly searched and compared.
For staining the intestines alkaline methyl-blue (Schutz or Löffler's solution) or
watery solution of Spiller's purple, has been used, while in the case of the other
tissues either these or some stain by the Gram method.
CALCUTTA,
J ul y 1887.
On the Phenomena of Propagation of Movement in
Mimosa pudica.
BY
SURGEON-MAJOR D. D. CUNNINGHAM, M.B.,
SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO SANITARY COMMISSIONER WITH THE GOVT. OF INDIA.
In one of the most recent English works on Vegetable Physiology 1 the
author expresses himself as follows in regard to the question of the propagation
of movements in Mimosa pudica and similar plants :—
"It appears from these considerations that the theory which regards the transmission
of a stimulus as a mere propagation of a disturbance of hydrostatic equilibrium is not
satisfactorily established. The theory is altogether too purely mechanical to account for
so remarkable a phenomenon in a living organism, and we must endeavour to establish for
it some other explanation which, while borne out at least as fully by the facts, will be more
in harmony with our conceptions of the organisation of living beings."
An attempt is next made to show that such an explanation is to be found
in the continuity of the protoplasm throughout masses of vegetable tissue
forming tracks for the propagation of irritation from one organ to another.
The object of the following pages is to show that this theory is by no
means as fully borne out by the facts as that for which it is substituted, and
that there is a great mass of phenomena which, however they may conflict with
current conceptions regarding organisation, clearly indicate that fluctuations in
fluid tension, acting along with structural peculiarities of different masses of tissue,
are the principal, if not the sole, cause to which propagation of movement must
be ascribed. Details of such phenomena will be found in the tables showing
the results of a very extensive series of experiments on the movements in
Mimosa pudica, and they appear to me to justify the following theses :—
I. The degree to which propagation of movement occurs runs parallel with
the degree to which facilities for the extension of fluctuations in the
fluid tension of the tissues are present.
II.
The direction in which propagation of movement occurs is in many
cases that in which the occurrence of fluctuations in the fluid
tension of the tissues can be shown to occur, whilst it cannot be
accounted for as the result of protoplasmic conduction.
III.
The order of events in instances of propagation of movement is in
1 Lectures on the Physiology of Plants. By Sydney Howard Vines, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., Cambridge,
at the University Press, 1886.
M 2
Scientific Memoirs by
many cases inexplicable on any theory of continuous propagation of
protoplasmic irritation, while it is readily explicable as the result
of fluctuations in fluid tension acting upon masses of tissue of
different structural characters and holding different relations to
surrounding parts.
Proceeding to the consideration of each of these in order, we have first to
examine into the evidence in favour of the first. In doing so data might be
derived from almost every table, but in the first place special attention is invited
to those in Tables I to VII, showing the results following section and heating of
distal pinnules, to those in Table VIII, showing the results of simple mechanical
stimulation, and to those in Table IX, showing the phenomena attending
mechanical obstruction to depression of the petiole on action of the primary
pulvinus.
Table I is a general table of the results of experiments carried out at
different times of year and under various conditions of temperature and atmo-
spheric and telluric moisture. It includes details in regard to 100 cases of
section of the tips of distal pinnules. The movements resulting from the
injury were in 94 cases limited to the injured leaf, and in only 6 did they extend
to one or more other leaves on the axis. In regard to 84 cases it is recorded
whether the leaf was exposed to direct sunshine or was in shade at the time of
section. In the 45 cases in which the leaf was exposed to the sun, action
extended over the entire leaf in 41 instances, and in some extended to one or
more other leaves. In the 4 cases in which the extension was not complete the
tip of one pinna failed to act in one, an entire pinna in two, and one pinna and
the primary pulvinus in one. In the 39 cases in which the leaf was in shade at
the time of section action failed to extend over the entire leaf in 38 cases,
being in 31 limited to the injured pinna alone or to it and the primary pulvinus,
in 6 cases extending incompletely to other pinnæ and in one case only extending
completely throughout the entire leaf.
Table II shows the results of section of distal pinnules of leaves in
shade shortly after a fall of rain. It includes details regarding 20 experiments.
In no single case was there any extension of movement beyond the injured leaf ;
in 10 cases action was limited to the injured pinna or to it and the primary
pulvinus, and in the remaining cases it was never complete throughout the
entire leaf.
Table III shows the results following section of distal pinnules of leaves
in shade after a continuous period of heavy rainfall. It includes data of 10
experiments. Here, again, in not a single instance was there any extension of
action beyond the injured leaf. In 6 cases action was limited to the injured
pinna or to it and the primary pulvinus, and in all of them the action in the cut
pinna was incomplete. In none of the 4 cases in which action extended to
other pinnæ than the injured one was it complete or even well developed in them.
84
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Medical Officers of the Army of India.
Table IV contains the results of 29 experiments on section of pinnules
in different parts of pinnæ in leaves in shade. All of them were conducted on
one morning, after a night in the early part of which there had been a heavy fall
of rain. In none of them was there any extension of action beyond the injured
leaf, and in none was the action in the latter complete.
Table V shows the results in 15 experiments on dry 1 leaves fully exposed
to direct sunshine. Here, in 13 cases, the action was complete throughout the
injured leaf, and in one of them it extended to another leaf. In the two remain-
ing cases it extended to all parts of the leaf, but was not complete.
Table VI contains the details of results in 40 experiments, conducted
under various external conditions, in which heat was applied to the extremities of
distal pinnules. In only 6 of them was there any extension of action beyond
the leaf primarily affected. In 34 cases it extended over the whole of the
primarily affected leaf. In the remaining 6 cases in which the action was
limited to the primarily affected leaf, action failed in the primary pulvinus in 2 ;
in the others action occurred in the primary pulvinus but failed to extend com-
pletely over the remaining pinnæ.
Table VII shows the results obtained in a series of 10 experiments on
the action of heat on the distal pinnules of leaves of dry plants.
1
Here, in
7 instances, action was extended to one or more leaves on the axis besides the
one originally affected, and in the remaining 3 cases the action in the leaf was
complete throughout in two and almost complete in the third.
In Table VIII the results of 3 distinct sets of experiments on the effects
of influences producing movement apart from any abnormal discharge of fluid
from the tissues are detailed. It relates to 30 experiments. In 10 of these
full depression of the petiole was induced by pressure on its upper surface, in
10 a similar effect was induced by impact on the undersurface of the primary
pulvinus, and in the remaining 10 action in individual pinnules was induced by
elevation or depression of their tips. In the first set of cases full depression of
the petiole was unaccompanied by any further results in 9 cases ; in one case
slight action in the secondary pulvini occurred as a secondary phenomenon. In
the second series slight action in the secondary pulvini occurred in two cases.
In the third series the action was throughout purely local.
In Table IX we have the results obtained in 24 experiments, conducted on
one morning, on the effects of section of the tips of distal pinnules of leaves, in
which in 12 instances depression of the petiole was mechanically obstructed,
while in 12 it was fully carried out. In the 12 cases in which depression was
mechanically obstructed, the action in 9 cases was limited to the injured pinna
and the primary pulvinus, whilst in those cases where it extended further it was
1
The term " dry " is here used to indicate that the leaves were free from any visible adherent dew or rain.
Scientific Memoirs by
extremely limited in its distribution. In the 12 cases where depression of the
petiole was fully and freely carried out, action extended in various degrees to
other pinnæ than that primarily affected in no less than 10 cases.
In regard to the two latter tables, it may possibly be affirmed that the limited
number of the experiments detailed, and the fact that in each case they were
conducted on a single occasion, detracts from the value of the data. To any
such objection all that I can reply is, that the only reason why the details of a
larger number of experiments conducted at different times have not been given
is that it appeared to be undesirable to increase the bulk of the tables, already
sufficiently cumbrous, by a mass of monotonous repetitions of identical results.
It may, however, be as well to give a little further information in regard to the
points specially dealt with in these tables. With regard to 'the effect of move
ments induced by the purely mechanical agency of pressure or impact apart
from anything causing abnormal discharge of fluid from, or abnormal obstruc-
tion to, the access of fluid to the tissues, all that I can say is that, after having
tried a very large number of experiments on the subject, I am fully convinced
that they are invariably almost, if not absolutely, localised where the experiments
are conducted under conditions such as those prevailing in Calcutta. By
means of upward or downward pressure on the petiole or upward or downward
pressure on the primary pulvinus, extreme petiolar depression may be certainly
induced with an entire or almost entire absence of any further result. 1 By judi-
ciously applied impulse, either all the pinnules of all the pinn y alone, or all the
pinnules of all the pinnæ and all the secondary pulvini may be caused to act
without the faintest trace of action in the primary pulvinus. Finally, by applying
upward or downward pressure to individual pinnules in a pinna, absolutely
localised movement in them alone may be secured, and to such an extent is
this the case that numerous isolated pinnules on both sides of one and the same
pinna may he caused to act without any propagation of movement either
centripetally, centrifugally, or transversely.
With regard to the phenomenon of minor extension of action in leaves
where there is a prevention or diminution of the petiolar depression conse-
quent on action in the primary pulvinus, it may be stated that the experiments
tabulated are merely given as showing the results constantly observed in other
cases in which obstruction either occurred naturally due to the relation of the
leaves and axes in dense masses of the plant, or was artificially induced by means
of ligatures confining the petiole more or less completely to its erect position.
So much for the general results of the tabulated experiments, but we have
now to consider their bearing on the question of the cause of the propagation of
movement from one part to another of the plant. At the very outset there is
86
1 The phenomenon of further action where it does occur may be best considered in connection with
the events recorded in Table IX.
Medical Officers of the Army of India.
dependent on protoplasmic continuity must assume that the sun's rays elevate
the irritability, conductility, or contractility of the protoplasm without affording
any evidence that they actually do so, the other theory can point to direct
evidence of increased facility for evaporative loss and therefore increased faci-
lity for extension of fluctuations in fluid content of the tissues running parallel
with increased tendency to extension of movement.
The table not only contains evidence of the association of increased tend-
ency to extension of movement with exposure to conditions favouring loss
of fluid from the tissues, but further a certain amount of direct evidence of the
association of special limitation of extension with the presence of conditions
favouring supply of fluid to, and obstructive to loss of fluid from, the tissues.
In experiments 54 to 57 inclusive we have a set of cases in which the phe-
nomena of movement in leaves in the shade and exposed to rain at the time of
experiment are detailed. In every one of these cases we find that the phe-
nomena of movement were extremely limited in their extension. In none of
them did they extend beyond the injured pinna and the primary pulvinus, in
two cases movement was confined to a limited number of pinnules, and in two
more to a limited number of pinnules and to the primary pulvinus.
The next two tables (II and III) contain evidence of a like nature. They
show the phenomena presented by leaves in the shade and after recent rainfall
on section of distal pinnules. In both we have clear evidence of limitation of
extension of movement, and there are even indications of a direct relation
between the degree of limitation and the amount of moisture to which the
plants were exposed. In the case of the experiments in Table II the plants
had been exposed on the previous evening to heavy showers, while those in
Table III were carried out after an evening and night of continued rain, involv-
ing, at all events, a greater supply of soil moisture, and in association with this
we find indications of the presence of greater limitation in them than in the
others. In Table II we have 20 experiments with limitation of action to the
injured pinna or to it and the primary pulvinus in 10 in Table III we have 10
experiments with such limitation present in 6 cases.
According to the theory of the protoplasmic origin of extension of move-
ment, we find now that it must be assumed, not only that sunshine raises the
activity of the protoplasm in this respect, but that the addition of moisture
lowers it. According to the other theory the phenomena differ from one
another in the different instances, because of the presence of demonstrable
differences in the facilities for loss and supply of fluid.
Table IV contains evidence of a similar kind to that afforded by the two
previous tables. The series of experiments, the results of which are embodied
in it, was conducted on a morning following a night in the early part of which
there had been a heavy fall of rain. The morning was cloudless, but slightly
hazy and the direct sunshine had not yet reached the plants. The leaves were
89
Scientific Memoirs by
in a state of full expansion and had been thoroughly washed by the rain, but
the amount of moisture adhering to their surfaces was trifling as compared with
that present after any normal night of heavy dewfall. The extension of move-
ment was in almost every instance very limited, in no case was it complete
throughout the injured leaf, and in no case was there any extension beyond it.
The data afforded by Table V are to be regarded as supplementary to
those in Table I, complementary to those in Tables II, III, and IV. We have
here to deal with the phenomena presenting themselves in 15 cases of section
of leaves from which the sunshine had already completely removed the adherent
dew, but which were still in a condition of full expansion. The results contrast
strikingly with those in the three previous tables. The extension of movement
was much more considerable, complete movement occurring throughout the
entire leaf in 13 cases, movement extending to all parts of the leaf in the
remaining two, and an extension to another leaf on the axis occurring in one
instance. We have here, again, evidence of the association of increased
extension of movement with increased facilities for the occurrence of extensive
fluctuations in the fluid contents of the tissues.
The data contained in Table VI show that the phenomena following the
application of heat to distal pinnules only differ in degree from those following
section. They show a distinct tendency to greater extension of movement,
but that, under conditions such as those prevailing at the time of experiment,
the extension was in any case comparatively limited, and in the great majority
of instances was confined to the injured leaf. The 40 experiments, the results
of which are embodied in the table, were, in the great majority of instances,
conducted in the morning, and when the plants were still loaded with dew and
not as yet exposed to direct sunshine, and, under these circumstances, we find
that in only 6 cases was there any extension of movement beyond the leaf to
which heat was applied. The results here contrast strikingly with those in the
following table.
In this, Table VII of the series, we have to deal with 10 experiments.
These were all conducted on a cloudy morning between 8 and 9 A.M., but
before there had been any direct sunshine. The plants were in a state of full
expansion, but the leaves were quite dry, there having been a minimum of dew
deposited during the course of the previous cloudy night and no rain having
fallen for 10 days previous. Under these circumstances, we find that the ten-
dency to extension of action was manifestly increased, as in 7 instances action
extended beyond the leaf primarily affected to one or more others along the
course of the axis, and in every case the action, at all events, extended over
the whole of the primarily affected leaf. Here the influence of direct sunshine
as influencing protoplasmic activity is directly excluded, and on the proto-
plasmic theory we must assume that relative desiccation gives rise to augmen-
tation of the protoplasmic activity of the tissues. As in the previous cases