The vasomotor activities of the nasal mucous membrane.

SINCE the time of Harvey knowledge of the circulation of the blood has increased to such an extent that the literature on the subject is now vast. From this knowledge has been derived the underlying principles governing the medical and surgical management of functional and organic disorders of the heart and of the blood vessels in most parts of the body. The nose, despite its anatomical prominence, has been very much neglected in this quest because fatal or disabling diseases were naturally given priority of attention. From earliest times, no special knowledge was required to observe that olfaction is the prime function of the nose, but Galen recognized that it was also an important organ of respiration, jieating the inspired air, and preventing cooling of the lungs. Little was added to this until the end of the 19th century when interest in nasal physiology was aroused by Zwaardemaker (1889 a, b), who described his olfactometer and an hygrometric method of measuring the nasal airway. At this time the general pattern of the peripheral autonomic ganglia had been substantially elucidated by Langley and others, and although the anatomical disposition of the nerves to the nose was well established, it was not until 1913 that Tschalussow published the results of four years' experiments (Tschalussow 1913; Fofanow and Tshalussow 1913) in which he demonstrated for the first time the existence of yasomotor fibres going to the nose. To do this,