scholarly journals XI. The Croonian lecture.--Preliminary observations on the locomotor system of medusæ

1876 ◽  
Vol 166 ◽  
pp. 269-313 ◽  

1. Structure of the Medusæ . -Although it is not my intention in this preliminary notice to enter into the literature of my subject, it is nevertheless desirable to quote the well-known statements of Prof. L. Agassiz regarding the nature and distribution of the nervous system which he describes as occurring in the Medusae. He says:-“There is unquestionably a nervous system in the Medusæ, but this nervous system does not form large central masses to which all the activity of the body is referred, or from which it emanates....In Medusæ the nervous system consists of a simple cord, of a string of ovate cells, forming a ring round the lower margin of the animal, extending from one eye-speck to the other, following the circular chymiferous tube, and also its vertical branches, round the upper portion of which they form another circle. The substance of this nervous system, however, is throughout cellular, and strictly so, and the cells are ovate. There is no appearance in any of its parts of true fibres. “I do not wonder, therefore, that the very existence of a nervous system in the Medusae should have been denied, and should not be at all surprised if it were even now further questioned. I would only urge those interested in this question to look carefully along the inner margin of the chymiferous tubes, and to search there for a cord of cells of a peculiar ovate form, arranged in six or seven rows, forming a sort of string, or rather similar to a chain of ovate beads placed side by side and point to point, but in such a manner that the individual cells would overlap each other for one half, one third, or a quarter of their length, being from five to seven side by side at any given point upon a transverse section of the row ; and would ask those who do not recognize at once such a string as the nervous system to trace it for its whole extent, especially to the base of the eye-speck, where these cells accumulate in a larger heap, with intervening coloured pigment forming a sort of ganglion; then, further, to follow it up along the inner side of the radiating chymiferous tubes which extend from the summit of the vault of the body, and to ascertain that here, again, it forms another circle round the central digestive cavity, from which other threads, or rather isolated series of elongated cells, run to the proboscis; they will then be satisfied that this apparatus, in all its complication, is really a nervous system of a peculiar structure and adaptation, with peculiar relations to the other systems of organs.......... and such a nervous system I have already traced in all its details, as here described, in the genera Hippocrene ( Bougainvillia ), Tiaropsis , and Staurophora ”.

1957 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-333
Author(s):  
G. M. HUGHES

I. The effects of limb amputation and the cutting of commissures on the movements of the cockroach Blatta orientalis have been investigated with the aid of cinematography. Detailed analyses of changes in posture and rhythm of leg movements are given. 2. It is shown that quite marked changes occur following the amputation of a single leg or the cutting of a single commissure between the thoracic ganglia. 3. Changes following the amputation of a single leg are immediate and are such that the support normally provided by the missing leg is taken over by the two remaining legs on that side. Compensatory movements are also found in the contralateral legs. 4. When two legs of opposite sides are amputated it has been confirmed that the diagonal sequence tends to be adopted, but this is not invariably true. Besides alterations in the rhythm which this may involve, there are again adaptive modifications in the movements of the limbs with respect to the body. 5. When both comrnissures between the meso- and metathoracic ganglia are cut, the hind pair of legs fall out of rhythm with the other four legs. The observations on the effects of cutting commissures stress the importance of intersegmental pathways in co-ordination. 6. It is shown that all modifications following the amputation of legs may be related to the altered mechanical conditions. Some of the important factors involved in normal co-ordination are discussed, and it is suggested that the altered movements would be produced by the operation of these factors under the new conditions. It is concluded that the sensory inflow to the central nervous system is of major importance in the co-ordination of normal movement.


1959 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-511
Author(s):  
M. J. WELLS

1. Octopuses blinded by section of the optic nerves were trained by means of 5-10 V. a.c. shocks to reject objects that they would otherwise take. 2. With trials at 3, 5, or 20 min. intervals, in which the test object was always presented to the same arm, animals learned within four or five trials, thereafter rejecting the test object whenever it was presented. 3. When, after a succession of such negative responses, the object was presented to another arm on the other side of the octopus, the result depended upon the rate of training before the change. Thus the object was taken in the trial immediately following the arm change in nineteen out of twenty-six sets of tests with trials at 3 or 5 min. intervals, but in only two out of twelve sets with trials at 20 min. intervals; further experiments in which changes were made between arms on the same side produced similar results. 4. These results are interpreted as showing that changes occurring as a result of experience directly affecting one arm take a period of several hours to spread and become effective in determining the reactions of the rest. This in turn implies the existence of functionally independent neurone fields representing the individual arms, and is discussed in relation to what is already known about the organization of the tactile system of the octopus.


Author(s):  
Ann Pellegrini

This essay asks what psychoanalysis and religion might have to say to each other in view of Freud’s secular aspirations and queer theory’s temporal turn. Both queer temporality and psychoanalysis offer resources for understanding the multiple ways time coats, codes, and disciplines the body in secular modernity. This is so even though psychoanalysis is one of these disciplines. Nevertheless, the times of psychoanalysis are multiple. On the one hand, psychoanalysis quite frequently lays down a teleology in which the individual subject matures along a set pathway. On the other hand, this developmental imperative is at profound odds with psychoanalysis’s capacity to make room for the co-existence of past and present in ways that confound secular time’s forward march. This latter recognition—co-temporality—may even lay down routes for the cultivation of “counter-codes” (Foucault’s term), ways of living and experiencing and telling time out of sync with the linear logics of what José Muñoz has called “straight time.”


Author(s):  
T.S. Rukmani

Hindu thought traces its different conceptions of the self to the earliest extant Vedic sources composed in the Sanskrit language. The words commonly used in Hindu thought and religion for the self are jīva (life), ātman (breath), jīvātman (life-breath), puruṣa (the essence that lies in the body), and kṣetrajña (one who knows the body). Each of these words was the culmination of a process of inquiry with the purpose of discovering the ultimate nature of the self. By the end of the ancient period, the personal self was regarded as something eternal which becomes connected to a body in order to exhaust the good and bad karma it has accumulated in its many lives. This self was supposed to be able to regain its purity by following different spiritual paths by means of which it can escape from the circle of births and deaths forever. There is one more important development in the ancient and classical period. The conception of Brahman as both immanent and transcendent led to Brahman being identified with the personal self. The habit of thought that tried to relate every aspect of the individual with its counterpart in the universe (Ṛg Veda X. 16) had already prepared the background for this identification process. When the ultimate principle in the subjective and objective spheres had arrived at their respective ends in the discovery of the ātman and Brahman, it was easy to equate the two as being the same spiritual ‘energy’ that informs both the outer world and the inner self. This equation had important implications for later philosophical growth. The above conceptions of the self-identity question find expression in the six systems of Hindu thought. These are known as āstikadarśanas or ways of seeing the self without rejecting the authority of the Vedas. Often, one system or the other may not explicitly state their allegiance to the Vedas, but unlike Buddhism or Jainism, they did not openly repudiate Vedic authority. Thus they were āstikadarśanas as opposed to the others who were nāstikadarśanas. The word darśana for philosophy is also significant if one realizes that philosophy does not end with only an intellectual knowing of one’s self-identity but also culminates in realizing it and truly becoming it.


Author(s):  
Martin Luck

What is a hormone? ‘How hormones work’ defines a hormone as a chemical signal which enables an event in one part of the body to have an effect somewhere else. Hormones make up one of the two great physiological control systems—the other being the nervous system—which keep the functions of the body working together. There are strong, multifunctional connections between the nervous and endocrine systems. As well as only operating inside the body, hormones are affected by internal stimuli and by external events detected by the senses. The endocrine system comprises several interlinked sub-systems, including five main axes centred on the hypothalamic and anterior pituitary gland. The processes of hormone transport and action through these systems are described.


1845 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 150-152
Author(s):  
Parnell

The author stated that a species of sturgeon, for which he has proposed the name of Acipenser latirostris, as characteristic of the species, is occasionally met with in the Frith of Forth, in the Solway Frith and in the Tay. It is called by the fishermen the Broad-nosed Sturgeon, to distinguish it from the Acipenser sturio, or sharp-nosed species. The length, in general, seven feet; weight, about eight stone. The colour of the head, back, and sides, is of an olive-grey; the belly dirty white. The body is armed with five rows of osseous shields, extending from the head to the tail. The first row runs down the central ridge of the back. The two next rows arise one on each side of the former, and immediately on the lower margin of the pectorals the other two rows commence. The dorsal shields are but very slightly carinated, the fifth being the highest in the series.


Archaeologia ◽  
1853 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-193
Author(s):  
John Yonge Akerman

With the exception of Figs. 1, 2, 3, the Gold Ornaments engraved in Plate VIII. have no reference whatever to each other. The first three were obtained by Viscount Strangford, Director of the Society, from a Greek priest at Milo, in the year 1820. Figs. 1 and 3 appear to have formed the ends of a light chain, and the other (fig. 2) to have been pendent by a small loop on the top of the head. The figure has unfortunately lost the feet and the left hand, but the other parts are perfect. The right hand is raised in an admonitory attitude. The forehead appears as if encircled with a wreath, while the body is crossed by what would seem to be intended for the tendril of a vine. The necklace was formerly in the collection of the late Mr. H. P. Borrell, of Smyrna, but I am informed by his brother, Mr. Maximilian Borrell, who now possesses it, that no record exists of its discovery, and that he cannot learn the name of the individual from whom it was purchased. It was well known that Mr. H. P. Borrell was in the habit of purchasing ancient coins, which were sent to him from all parts of Greece and Asia-Minor, and that many rare and unique specimens fell into his hands, of which he contributed descriptions in various volumes of the Numismatic Chronicle. The necklace may, therefore, have been included in one of these numerous consignments, and we can scarcely indulge the hope that the place of its discovery will ever be made known. As an example of ancient art, it may vie with the most elaborate and beautiful specimens of goldsmiths' work of any age or period. The details are wonderfully minute and delicate, even the backs of the button-like objects at the ends of the pendent cords being elaborately finished.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 272
Author(s):  
Jordi Morell Rovira

The article explores the relationship of the person with the hole through both literal and metaphorical situations. On the one hand, it points up the body in seclusion and suspended in a time interval, as in the case of the accident at the mine in San José (Chile) or works by artists like J. Wall, G. Schneider or R. Ondák. In this way, opposed feelings evoke the experiences of waiting and/or punishment, which are explanatory of a confined body or a hole. Literature, cinema and art deal with these events from multiple aspects, which become existential allegories about the individual. On the other hand, the act of digging gains prominence as a symbol of work, but also of the absurd. Recalling the ambivalence that may suggest a person making a hole, this article carries out a drift through works by artists of different generations and contexts, such as C. Burden, M. Heizer, F. Miralles, Geliti, S. Sierra, F. Alÿs, M. Salum, X. Ristol or N. Güell. A series of clearly performative or conceptual works, where the act of digging, drilling, burying or unburying become common practices that show the diversity of meanings and intentions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-87
Author(s):  
Anabela Pereira

The aim of this article is to demonstrate how body-representations offer an opportunity for its visual interpretation from a biographical point of view, enhancing, on the one hand, the image’s own narrative dynamics, and, on the other, the role of the body as a place of incorporation of experiences, as well as, a vehicle mediating the individual interaction with the world. Perspective founded in the works of the artists Helena Almeida and Jorge Molder, who use self-representation as an expression of these incorporated (lived) experiences, constitutes an important discursive construction and structuring of their narrative identity through visual creation, the artists enable the other with moments of sharing knowledge, creativity and subjectivity, contributing also to the construction of the contemporary, cultural and social imagery.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Catherine Ruth Wylie

<p>The variety of concerns and everyday practices found in the lives of members of Western societies has to some degree deterred their exploration by anthropologists. In this thesis, I hope to demonstrate that a commonality does indeed exist within and sustains this multiformity. However, it exists where we might least expect to find it: in a dialogue which takes place with reference to the physical person rather than, as in other societies, with reference to the relations between categories of people. This thesis posits that the individual is not merely a synonym for person, or human being, but a social mode of being which is characteristic of particular social formations, namely those of the industrialized West. By mode of being I refer to both human experience and the terms in which it is comprehended. The mode of being derives from two overlaid dialectics: the inner dialogue between what I have termed the active self and the sense of self, and the engagement between that dialogue and the stock of options available in any given social ambiance. The mode of being becomes individualistic (compared to those based on exchange, descent, patronage, hierarchy etc) when the inner dialogue refers back to itself, when it is stressed as the locus of reality. The sense of self can be seen as a reflective surface in which is caught the configuration of elements derived from the social options, a pattern which differs sufficiently from person to person for the active self to be affirmed as distinct amongst others, as 'individual'. In the body of this thesis, the constituents of this mode of being are articulated and explored through a spiralling sequence of portraits depicting nineteen individuals, their relationships, possessions, opinions, expectations and the concerns which colour their lives. Three prime styles of the individual mode emerge. The most common of these stresses complementarity, and so focuses on partnership in marriage, exemplified and made demanding (purposeful) by children and home ownership. Less common, though increasing in frequency, is the autonomous style, which focuses on the person as separate, on a capability which carries its owner through a range of situations in which its use refers solipsistically back to the person, demonstratrating to others, particularly peers, those like him or herself (more the former than the latter) his or her high worth. Finally there is the participant style, which in contrast to the other two is more open to options, more fluid; which if involved in family and house, or job, is unlikely to make of those the enclosures they form for the executors of the other two styles. This thesis attempts to refresh our understanding of both individuality and society; and to show that it is not possible to comprehend the former, even though we may sense its significance, unless we broaden our perception of the latter beyond something that is shared, stressing community and categorization, to encompass processes which may lack a shared flcus or ordering but which are nonetheless simultaneously common and transcendent.</p>


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