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was cut and the rabbit was thrown aside dead. The thorax was opened at 1h. 5m. 50s., and
the heart was seen by several competent observers "beating vigorously and rhythmically".
At 1h. 15m., it is noted, "heart still beating rhythmically; auricles and ventricles both
contracting strongly, but the action of the ventricle is intermittent". At 2h. 5m., one hour
after death, the auricles were rhythmically beating; the ventricles were still. This continued
till 3 o'clock, two hours after death, after which no more notes were taken. In the face of
these facts we cannot accept the vague statements of experiments which the Glasgow Com-
mittee first brought forward in 1879, and have repeated without confirmation in 1890.
The next part of the Glasgow Committee's paper deals with the manometer experiments
of the Commission. I may observe that in all the manometer experiments of the Commission
every event which is marked in the Ludwig tracings was written on the tracings, as the drum
revolved, at the time it actually occurred. The Committee says:—"In the first place, in
Experiments 103, 119, and 157 we have sudden falls of pressure, and opposite some of these,
not all, there is the note, 'holding breath'. But these sudden falls of pressure are not con-
fined to occasions when the animal held its breath."
This must mean, if it has any meaning at all, that some of the sudden falls of pressure
in tracings 103, 119, and 157 (which will shortly be published) are not accounted for, and
are due to some effect on the heart which the Commission overlooked. As a matter of fact,
all the sudden falls of pressure in the three tracings were due (1) to holding the breath;
(2) to struggling, which interferes with respiration; (3) to asphyxia; or (4) to electrical
stimulation of the vagus. This is clearly stated on the tracings, and the Glasgow Committee
ought not to have endeavoured to make a point by omitting to say so, in describing the
inferences which they think may be drawn from any of these sudden falls.
The Committee proceed: "Turning to experiments referred to in section
12,* where the breathing was artificially interrupted, we have been astonished to find that the traces do
not bear out the statements of that paragraph." It is impossible in this short abstract to
follow the Glasgow Committee through the quotations which are put forward as "facts" to
substantiate the assertion that the tracings do not bear out the statements in section 12.
The complete report—with the whole of the tracings taken by the Commission—will shortly
be published, and an examination of those tracings which the Glasgow Committee refer to
will show that their assertion is inaccurate. One example of their inaccuracy must suffice.
The Committee states "at Fick 7 (Experiment 150) we have 'mouth closed,' but there is
scarcely any effect on the blood-pressure, and very little on the pulsation." It is distinctly
shown on the Ludwig tracing that Fick 7 began at 12h. 17m. 12s. and ended at 12h. 17m. 40s.
* Sect i on 12 i s as f ol l ows : —Compl et e, or al mos t compl et e, as phyxi a, as by f or ci bl y cl os i ng t he nos e and mont h, or cl os i ng
the tracheal tube after tracheotomy has an effect similar to, but more marked than, that produced by holding the breath,
and the character of the trace corresponds precisely to that produced by irritation of the peripheral end of the cut vagus. The
pressure falls extremely rapidly, sometimes almost to zero, and the heart's action becomes excessively slow or, even stops for a
few seconds. If the Fick trace of Experiment 148 be compared with the photographic reproduction of trace A of the Glasgow
Committee, it will be seen that they are identical, and that the slow action of the heart with great fall of pressure, which
the Glasgow Committee attributed to some capricious action of chloroform upon the heart, was undoubtedly due to asphyxia.