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ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 469
by MAGENDIE, GMELIN, J. N. EBERLE, HELM, BEAUMONT,
and BLONDLOT,.whose experiments with gastric juice led to
important results, by CLAUDE BERNARD, who investigated
the action of the pancreatic juice upon fats, and discovered
the glycogenic function of the liver, and by many other
distinguished investigators. DUTROCHET explained the
processes of absorption and elimination by the phenomena
of osmosis discovered by the Abbe NOLLET, and studied the
degrees in which various animal membranes permit diffusion
to take place through them. ANDRAL and GAVARRET,
BECQUEREL, SCHERER, NASSE, LEHMANN, and others
worked at the physiology of the blood.
The chemical composition of the blood, its colouring
matters, its corpuscles, its coagulability, etc., were investigated,
and the physical conditions of its movement in the
vessels, the blood-pressure, the mechanism of the heart
considered as a pump, the phenomena presented by the
heart in all other respects and by the pulse, were, with the
help of suitably constructed apparatus, rendered subjects
of more exact knowledge.
In addition to the labours of E. H. WEBER, VOLKMANN,
FLOURENS, and others, who in this department rendered
distinguished services, mention must also be made here of
the important researches upon the influence of the nervous
system on the movements of the heart and on the vascular
system. EDUARD WEBER referred to the part played by
the vagus in regulating the action of the heart; it was
recognized afterwards that it is here really a question of
the fibres of the accessorius. CLAUDE BERNARD discovered
the vaso-motor functions of the cervical
sympathetic, and probably by this suggested those
researches which led to the discovery of the vaso-motor
centre in the medulla oblongata. The centre for the
respiratory movements, the point vital, was discovered in
1837 by FLOURENS after LEGALLOIS had already drawn
attention to the importance of the medulla oblongata in
regard to the respiratory act.