IN THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MOTION, THE SENSES, GENERATION, AND DEVELOPMENT. BY WILLIAM BALY, M.D., F.R.S., PHYSICIAN TO MILLBANK PRISON, AND LECTURER ON FORENSIC MEDICINE AND WILLIAM SENHOUSE KIRKES, M.D. BEING A SUPPLEMENT TO THE SECOND VOLUME OF PROFESSOR MÜLLER'S "ELEMENTS OF PHYSIOLOGY." LONDON: PRINTED FOR TAYLOR AND WALTON, BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS TO UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, UPPER GOWER STREET. 1848. PREFACE. K-QP31 BUR Lib. Ar an early period after the publication of the last part of the English edition of Professor Müller's Physiology, it became necessary to reprint the second volume of the work; a second edition of the first volume having already been issued. The second volume did not then need complete revision and re-editing; it was therefore reprinted with only a few verbal alterations. But it was determined that, after a certain lapse of time, there should follow a Supplement or Appendix, containing later information on the subjects treated of in the most important portion of the volume, namely, that portion comprising the Physiology of Generation and Development; and reference was made to such an Appendix in several pages of the reprinted volume. In accordance with this plan, I was occupied during part of the winter of 1845-6, with preparing an account of the advances made in the course of the previous three years in the departments of science just named, but other unavoidable engagements interrupted my progress with the undertaking at that time, and subsequently prevented me from resuming it. The project, however, could not well be relinquished. Finding, therefore, a few months since, that I still was not able to command the requisite leisure, I proposed to Messrs. Taylor and Walton that Dr. Kirkes should be requested to lend his aid towards the immediate completion of the work, a proposal to which they readily acceded. And Dr. Kirkes very kindly consented to render the assistance required, although himself engaged in the preparation of a separate Treatise on Physiology. It has been found advisable to extend the original plan of the present work, and to make it supplementary to the entire second volume of Professor Müller's Elements of Physiology, by including an account of the more important advances in the Physiology of Motion and of the Senses. These departments of the science have not, however, been so M371701 actively cultivated during the last few years, and are not so extensive in their scope as those of Generation and Development. A larger space has, therefore, been devoted to the latter, than to the former subjects. To the Physiology of the Mind, for reasons which it is unnecessary to explain, no additions have been made. It remains only to state that the portion of this work, comprehending the following subjects:-"The Unimpregnated Ovum," "the Semen," "the Discharge of Ova from the Ovaries," " the Nature and Purport of the Corpus Luteum," "Menstruation," and "the Changes which take place in the Impregnated Ovum, down to the completion of the Cleavingprocess," has been written by myself, the greater part of it during the winter of the years 1845-6; that the remainder has been written by Dr. Kirkes, and that the whole has been prepared for the press by Dr. Kirkes and myself conjointly. 28, Spring Gardens, 27th March, 1848. WILLIAM BALY. 2. Of the muscular and the allied motions. A. The elastic and contractile tissue of arteries Nature of the contractile arterial tissue Relative size of the fibres and fibrils of striped muscle in the foetus and adult Attachment of muscle to tendon Involuntary muscles which are composed of striped fibres b. The vital properties of muscle. Its apparent hardness in the state of contraction .. Changes in its elementary fibres during contraction Condition of muscles during rigor mortis Involuntary as well as voluntary muscles subject to rigidity 16 |