Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/498

430 this is insufficient to account for the regular pulsatory character of the movement. It is therefore due, in all probability, to the vital pulsations of the coats of the artery. I have not had an opportunity since that time to repeat the experiment.

The only parallel case with which I am acquainted, is recorded in Hassal's Microscopic Anatomy, as follows: "Wythe here quotes Hassal's description of an examination of the frog's tongue between slides in which preparation the circulation was maintained in the blood vessels of the tongue. Wythe concludes :

""These observations show: 1. That the pulsation of the arteries is a property residing in the coats of those vessels, which is independent of the heart's action, though supplementary to it; and also independent of the stimulus arising from distention with blood.

"2. That a peculiar propulsive force, in all probability, resides in the capillary vessels, of whose nature we are at present uninformed.

"3. That one of the chief causes of the capillary circulation, is probably the pulsation of the arterial branches from which they spring.""

This observation preceded the similar one of Wharton Jones, in the veins of the bat's wing, which was published in 1852, and also the observations of M. Schiff in 1854, on the blood vessels in the ear of the rabbit. Yet Luciani ascribes this observation originally to Schiff, although he refers also to Wharton Jones and Saviotti.

When the Civil War broke out Wythe was located in medical practice at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. Here he and a Mr. Albright, afterward a general in the Northern Army during the war, organized a company of volunteers which they placed at the service of Governor Curtin.