Slight Protrusion Research Articles

Architecture to Painting in the Middle Ages

MEDIEVAL church building developed as a result of a specific combination of technical knowledge, ritual requirements, and sociological conditions. The consecutive changes involved in this development seem to have transformed the prevalent habits of perceiving space in a specifically patterned form, consequently influencing the development of painting in a most profound manner. The early Romanesque church is predominantly an abbey church in a rural area. It was built mainly for the performance of religious services by the clergy, with little concern for a large congregation. Since an important part of the ritual is of a processional nature, there is a strong emphasis on the longitudinal axis of the nave leading toward the high altar. A correlative axis is introduced by the transept, distinguishing the processional character of the Christian church from that of the Egyptian temple. Whether or not the idea of the nave-transept configuration is derived from the early desire to give the plan of the church the symbolic shape of the cross, the lines of the Roman cross have become a basic means of organizing space in Western civilization. In modified and extended form it is even present in Descartes' system of co-ordinates. In Romanesque church building, the quality of movement present in these directional axes of the cross-a quality often termed dynamic-is in conflict with the static qualities of general structure and concept. The shell of the Romanesque architectural structure is conceived in terms of a plane-wall-and-roof construction; the void is conceived as a series of box-shaped finite volumes, interdependent with the shell. The box-shaped parts of the interior necessitate a plane-wall-and-roof construction for their definition; that is, such a structure can hardly define anything other than a box-shaped void. The resulting structural and spatial articulation therefore combines finite space blocks in a more or less additive fashion. However, the immanent dynamism of the movement to be found in the two main axes, together with an increasing compulsion to stretch in height and depth, conflicted with the static elements of the Romanesque building. It was this conflict which compelled the builders of the period to develop new structural concepts. The first step in this development is a more dynamic interpretation of the plane wall, as instanced by the slight protrusions in common use by at least the eleventh century. These blind arcades-scarcely engaged columns, actually -may not have seemed, at first, to be more than a decorative elaboration of the plane wall. But they articulated the wall and gave rhythmic unity to the sequence of windows which were originally cut into the wall with little consideration for structure. It is only in the light of later developments that one recognizes the structural potentialities of this innovation, for the later dissolution of the plane wall into structural elements, as well as its strengthened vertical articulation, would have been impossible without it. The spiritual heritage of the North is one of movement and structure, while that of the South is of a static and geometric character. The friction resulting from the opposition of these essentially differing attitudes is possibly the most important single factor in producing the subsequent great architectural ideas of the Western world. From it springs the general dynamization of space in the Gothic, manifest in the dissolution of the carrying plane wall, as well as its transformation into a number of new elements-the buttresses, piers, ogival vaults and ribs. The coordination of relatively isolated and independent spatial constituents was achieved in the Romanesque by simply adding the elements one to another, but in the Gothic this gives way to a structurally unified space. Windows cut from the plane wall give way to glazed screens stretched between structural parts of the building. The fundamentally post-and-lintel approach of carrying members with the load put on top of them (as practiced in the Romanesque) gives way to the new structural unity. An interdependence of vertical thrust and horizontal cover is achieved by both the pointed arch and the rib vault construction of the Gothic. In the late medieval city-state, the rural and feudal abbey church was replaced by the urban and proto-democratic cathedral which must serve a large congregation with a strong sense of being a unified community. The unity of PAUL M. LAPORTE Of the fine arts faculty of Macalester College is concerned with aesthetics and with the interdependence of the

Suckling Reflex in the Cat

FOR experimental purposes, some new-born kittens had to be reared in the laboratory away from the mother. Difficulties were encountered in inducing the kittens to accept milk administered by means of a glass pipette, until a way of evoking the suckling response was found. It was observed that slight pressure from the pipette applied to the premaxillary part of the palate invariably produced the suckling response which was maintained so long as the kitten was disposed to accept food. The main feature of this response is a slight protrusion of the tongue with side-to-side concavity of the dorsum, which assumes the shape of a shoehorn. The nozzle of the pipette is firmly grasped between the tongue and the premaxillary palate. The upturned margins of the more posterior part of the tongue press against the palate. A closed channel is thus formed within the oral cavity. The protruded tip of the tongue works up and down the side of the pipette in a milking action. Suction is created by alternate depression and elevation of the floor of the oral cavity along with the mandible, while the margins of the tongue and the palate together maintain the closed channel.

SURGICAL TREATMENT OF HABITUAL CRIMINALS.

During the past two years I have had an opportunity of making observations in two cases which seem to me to be of especial interest in pointing out a reasonable plan for the surgical treatment of habitual criminals of the male sex. Case1. —Mr. G., a merchant, married, 43 years of age, came under my care July 22, 1897, giving the following history: Although he had never been very rugged, he had never suffered from any disease except an attack of intermittent fever at the age of 16. He has always suffered from constipation, and for three months has suffered from a throbbing pain in the region of the prostate gland. More force is required in voiding the urine and evacuating the bowels than formerly, causing a slight protrusion on each side in the vicinity of the inguinal canals. Present condition: He is fairly well nourished, although he has lost

On the development of the retina and optic nerve, and of the membranous labyrinth and auditory nerve

The author has divided the observations contained in this paper into two parts:—the first of which treats of “The Development of the Retina and Optic Nerve; the second, of the Development of the Membranous Labyrinth and Auditory Nerve.” In the observations on the development of the retina, which have been made on the embryo of the chick, the author demonstrates its mode of evolution, and also the mode of development of the various layers of which this membrane is formed. They commence at the early period of the thirty-third hour of incubation, at which time the cephalic extremity of the embryo presents a slight protrusion of its walls, which by the thirty-sixth hour is very considerably increased, having become more elongated and protruded outwards, presenting a somewhat dilated end, and being somewhat constricted at its connection with the anterior cerebral cell from which it arises. This is the first indication of the development of this membrane.