. V m « Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/experimentalinqu01phil_0 AN EXPERIMENTS L INQUIRY INTO THE LAWS OF THE VITAL FUNCTIONS, WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF f nternal Btseases; BY A. P. WILSON PHILIP, M.D. F.R.S.E., Fellow of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh , 8fc. IN' PART RE-PUBLISHED, BY PERMISSION of the PRESIDENT of the ROYAL SOCIETY, FROM THE PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF 1815 & 1817, WITH THE REPORT OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE ON THE EXPERIMENTS OF M. LE CALLOIS, SECOND EDITION, WITH SOME ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS. LONDON : PRINTED FOR THOMAS AND GEORGE UNDERWOOD, FLEET-STREET; AND ADAM BLACK, EDINBURGH. 1818. ' - ■ London : Printed by W. CLONVES, Nortbumbe.’l and court, Strand. CONTENTS PAGE Preface to the Second Edition vii Pr eface to the First Edition ix An Experimental Inquiry, fyc. 1 PART I. Of the State of our Knowledge respecting the Prin- ciple on which the Action of the Heart and Blood- Vessels depends, and the Relation which subsists be- tween them and the Nervous System CHAP. I. The Report made to the Class of Physical and Ma- thematical Sciences of the Institute of France, on the Work of M. le Gallois, entitled, Experiences sur le Principe de la Vie, notamment sur c61ui des Mouvemens du Cceur, et sur le Si£ge de ce Principe 2 CHAP. II. Observations on the foregoing Report 5 S PART II. Experiments made with a View to ascertain the Laws of the Vital Functions 67 a 2 n n r" **» r> ^ C. ■.) O 6 IV CONTENTS. CHAP. I. PAGE On the Principle on which the Action of the Heart and Vessels of Circulation depends 69 CHAP. 11. On the Relation which subsists between the Heart and Vessels of Circulation and the Nervous System.. 80 CHAP. III. On the Principle on which the Action of the Muscles of Voluntary Motion depends, and the Relation which they bear to the Nervous System 98 CHAP. IV. On the comparative Effects of Stimuli, applied to the Brain and Spinal Marrow, on the Heart and Muscles of Voluntary Motion. 105 CHAP. V. On the Principle on wlirch the Action of the Vessels of Secretion depends, and the Relation which they bear to the Nervous System 119 CHAP. VI. On the Principle on which the Action of the Ali- mentary Canal depends; with some Observations on an Opinion of Mr. Hunter 129 CHAP. VII. On the Relation which the Alimentary Canal bears to the Nervous System 138 SECT. I. On the Process of Digestion 140 CONTENTS. If SECT. II. PAGE On the Effects on the Stomach and Lungs of de- stroying certain Portions of the Spinal Marrow, compared with those of dividing one or both of the Eighth Pair of Nerves .•. 156 CHAP. VIII. On the Cause of Animal Temperature 168 CHAP. IX. On the Use of the Ganglions 170 CHAP. X. On the Relation which the Vital Power's bear to each other, and the Order in which they cease in dying 186 CHAP. XI. On the Nature of the Vital Powers 217 CHAP. XII. A Review of the Inf erences from the preceding Expe- riments and Observations 253 PART III. On the Application of the foregoing Experiments and Observations, to explain the Nature and improve the Treatment of Diseases 269 CHAP. I. On Sanguineous Apoplexy 272 CHAP. II. On inflammation 279 VI CONTENTS. CHAP. III. PAGE On Nervous Apoplexy 311 CHAP. IV. On Affections of the Spinal Marroio 326 CHAP. V. On Asthma and Dyspepsia 331 CHAP. VI. On Suspended Animation 358 APPENDIX 363 PREFACE TO THE SECOJYD EDITION. IT must be gratifying to an author under any circumstances, that a second edition of his work should be called for in less than nine months. To me, who have been accused of displaying in this Treatise a want of the common feelings of humanity, it is peculiarly so. It is an additional evi- dence of the truth of a maxim on which I have ever firmly relied, that a man whose only aim is to act on the principles of correct feeling and common sense, how- ever he may be assailed by the prejudices of some individuals and the injustice of others, will always have the voice of the majority. That such has been my aim, I shall not, I hope, find it difficult to prove. So much has lately been said by some, who believe that they advocate the cause of humanity, and particularly by some Members of the Royal Society, against the employment of living animals in physio- Vlll PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. logical experiments, that I wish, as far as I am able, to call public attention to this question ; convinced, that wherever it be- comes the subject of calm and deliberate reflection, all difference of opinion re- specting it will cease. I shall, therefore, in an Appendix to this Treatise, enter on it at some length. I shall there also reply to insinuations of a different kind, though connected with the same subject, which still more deeply concern me. I have been deceived, it is said, or have wished to de- ceive others, respecting the result of some of my experiments ; which were conse- quently not only cruel, but injurious to the cause of science, which they professed to serve. In the present edition, a few observa- tions are added, and some change is made in the arrangement. The w r ork is divided into three parts, and in the eleventh chap- ter of the second part, the experiments and observations relating to the agency of galvanism in the animal economy, which by the former arrangement were inter- mixed with several other parts of the In- quiry, are presented at one view. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 1 HE obscurity of tlie nature of Internal Diseases, of which Physicians have always complained, seems to arise from several causes ; the difficulty in those diseases of referring the painful feeling to the seat of the injury, proceeding from the indistinct- ness with which we refer to internal parts, and other parts sympathizing with the part affected ; the deficiency of our knowledge of morbid anatomy, in consequence of which we are not always enabled from the train of symptoms to infer the derange- ment of structure; our ignorance of the function of many internal parts, and where we have a knowledge of the function, our ignorance of the principle on which it de- pends. If such be the causes of the ob- scurity of the nature of Internal Diseases, we may easily perceive the objects which ought to be kept in view in our endeavours X PREFACE TO to obtain a more correct knowledge of them, and consequently of the means of cure adapted to them. By the frequent inspection of dead bodies, we learn to connect particular trains of symptoms with the changes of structure which occasion them ; for al- though the sensations of which the patient complains are often ill defined, and some- times not referred to the seat of the morbid action, yet the same morbid action almost always produces nearly the same train of symptoms. Nothing appears more to have retarded the progress of medical know- ledge, than the obstacles which have in all ages been opposed to the inspection of dead bodies. The importance of the in- formation thus obtained, however, has been slowly reconciling the public mind to it; and we may with confidence anticipate the greatest improvements from the in- creasing frequency of this practice ; with- out which we can no more acquire a know- ledge of the diseased states of the body, than we can of its healthy state without the aid of anatomy. But neither anatomy nor the inspection THE FIRST EDITION. XI of morbid bodies can teach us the nature of the functions. A knowledge of them can only be acquired by comparing the structure of the organs with the actions ob- served in them while their vital power re- mains. Some of these actions are the objects of simple observation in our own bodies and those of other animals. Ana- tomy, for example, teaches us the struc- ture, position, and attachments of the mus- cles ; observation readily points out their function, and by the lesion of this function we judge of the extent and degree of their morbid affections, and are consequently guided in the application of our remedies. But there are other and more important functions, which in the entire animal are hidden from our view. To ascertain their nature, experiments must be made on the living and newly-dead animal. We shall find that many parts retain their vital actions for a certain time after what we call death. To the aversion to experiments on living animals, which every man must feel, we may, I think, in a great measure, ascribe the little progress which has been made in Xll PREFACE TO this essential branch of medicine. Some- thing too must be ascribed to the obscurity of the subject. The internal functions of animals are of a nature so different from any thing which we are accustomed to see around us, that our previous experience gives us little assistance in attempting to trace their laws, and our progress is neces- sarily slow and difficult. Hence it ap- pears to have been, that the earlier Physio- logists, disgusted with the task placed be- fore them, evaded it; and endeavoured by ingenious fictions to deceive their readers. It is now universally agreed that if any progress can be made in Physiology, it is not by the wanderings of fancy, but by patience and by labour. We are amused with the reveries of Stahl, but for instruc- tion we look to the experiments of Haller. And to similar experiments we must look for all the information we can obtain on this subject. The hope of adding some- thing to our knowledge of the vital func- tions, and thus improving the treatment of their diseases, induced the author to under- take the following Inquiry. From the foregoing view of the subject THE FIRST EDITION. Xlll it will be admitted, I think, that few writers have stronger claims on the in- dulgence of the public than the Physiolo- gist, provided his endeavours are rationally- directed. The knowledge which it is his aim to acquire and communicate, is of the most important kind, while his means of information are always laborious, and often of a painful nature. These claims are increased by the circumstances in which he is usually placed. No person is fitted for physiological inquiries, who has not obtained a competent knowledge of the different branches of medicine. This knowledge is acquired with so much diffi- culty, and depends so much on actual ob- servation, that few who do not practise medicine as a profession ever acquire it. The Physiologist, therefore, generally pur- sues his inquiries amidst anxious and fa- tiguing engagements of a different kind, and of such a nature that all others must give place to them. I do not mention these circumstances as affording any apo- logy for inaccuracy in points of conse- quence, because a writer owes it to the public to withhold his communications PREFACE TO 'xiv till he thinks himself assured of their accuracy ; but they may, I hope, be ad- mitted as an apology for less important errors. The errors of the following In- quiry are not those of precipitation. It is above fifteen years since some of the experiments which I am about to relate, and many connected with them, were made. None have been made within the last year, during which I have employed the time I could allot to such engage- ments in arranging my experiments, com- paring them together, and endeavouring to guard against hasty inferences, which it is difficult to do at the time the experiments are made. I have endeavoured as much as pos- sible to avoid experiments on living ani- mals. Most of those related in the fol- lowing Inquiry were made on the newly- dead animal ; and it will appear, I think, from what I am about to lay before the reader, that for many experiments, for which the living animal has been thought necessary, the newly-dead animal may be used with equal, and sometimes with greater advantage. When it was neces- THE FIRST EDITION. XV sary to use the living animal, I uniformly observed the following rules : — to destroy the sensibility previous to the experi- ment, when this could be done without influencing the result ; when several ani- mals were equally fit for the experi- ment, to choose the one which would suffer least from it ; when there were se- veral ways of performing the experiment, to choose the way which would occasion least suffering ; if the experiment was ne- cessarily fatal, to destroy the animal as soon as the purpose in view was an- swered ; and to take such precautions as rendered as few repetitions as possible re- quisite. I have been much indebted, in making the experiments, to the kind assistance of several gentlemen ; particularly Dr. Has- tings*, of Worcester; Mr. Sheppard, Sur- geon, in Worcester, and Mr. Herbert Cole, House Surgeon to the Worcester Infirmary. I shall frequently have occasion to men- tion those gentlemen. * Lately Mr. Hastings. AN EXPERIMENTAL INQUIRY, fyc. The following Treatise is divided into three Parts. In the first Parti shall make the reader acquainted with the state of our knowledge respecting the principle on which the action of the heart and blood vessels depends, and the relation which subsists between them and the nervous system, at the time my experiments were begun ; as on this, all our knowledge of the vital functions more or less immediately depends. In the second, I shall relate these experiments, and point out the inferences to which they seem to lead; and in the last, con- sider their application to explain the nature, and improve the treatment of diseases. B o PART I. Of the State of our Knowledge respecting the Prin- ciple on which the Action of the Heart and Blood Vessels depends , and the Relation which subsists between them and the Nervous System. The object of this Part cannot I think be better accomplished than by laying' before the reader a translation of the Report of the Com- mittee of the institute of France, on the Ex- periments of M. le Gallois. and such observa- tions on it as it appears to demand. CHAP. I. The Report made to the Class of Plu/sical and Mathematical Sciences of' the Institute of France on the z cork of M. le Ga/lois, entitled Experiences sur le Principe de la vie, notam- ment sur celui des mouvemens du coeur et sur le siege de ce Principe. The Class having charged M. de Humboldt, M. Halle and myself*, to make a report to it on the Memoir read at a meeting of the 3d of June * M. Percy. 3 last, by M. le Gallois, Doctor of Medicine, re- specting' the nature of the power of the heart, and whence it derives its power*, we are about to present to it a detail which will, perhaps, be as long as the Memoir itself, because with- out the necessary details and explanations it would be impossible to appreciate all the merit of this excellent work. It was not till after the circulation of the blood was discovered by Harvey, early in the seventeenth century, that Physiologists turned their attention to the* cause and mechanism of the movements of the heart, which have, since that time, given rise to so many different systems. We shall not speak of those of Descartes f, of Sylvius de le Boe £, of Borelli §. They are very absurd, and serve only to prove how unfor- tunate were the first attempts to explain one of the most important functions of the animal economy. We shall begin with the distinction which Willis first pointed out between the * “ Concernant le principe des forces du coeur, et le siege de ce principe.” t L’homme de Rene Descartes, et la formation du foetus avec les remarques de Louis Laforgue, Paris, 1677, p. 4 and 106. I Francisci De la Boe Sylvii Opera Medica Geneva?, 1681, p. 5, 27, 28, 33, 475. § Joh- Alph. Borelli de motu animalium. Haga? Comitum, 1743, p. 89—92. B 2 4 nerves destined for the voluntary, and those for the involuntary motions. He placed the origin of the latter m the cerebellum, of the former in the brain, properly so called. He taught that the motions of the heart, and other vital organs, experience no interruption, be- cause the cerebellum is in a state of constant activity ; but that the organs of voluntary mo- tion, on the contrary, require repose, because the brain acts only by intervals*. This dis- tinction of Willis was very generally admitted till the middle of the last century. It was chiefly with a view to it that the division of the eighth pair of nerves, from which it was main- tained that almost all the nerves of the heart proceed, was performed in different countries. The object was to prove that it is from the cerebellum that the heart derives all its power, and it was alleged that the animal died in this experiment, in consequence of the communica- tion between these organs being interrupted. But, besides that it dies too slowly to permit us to ascribe its death to this cause, it has been proved in later times by several Philosophers, and particularly by M. le Gallois, in a memoir which the Class ordered to be inserted in the transactions of learned correspondents, that death here proceeds from quite a different * Tho. Willis opera omnia, edente Ger. Balsio Amstelodami, l6S2, Tom- 1, de cerebri anatome, cap. xv. p. 50. 5 cause. It has sometimes happened, indeed, that animals have died almost suddenly after the division of the nerves in question, and the partisans of Willis have not failed to lay much stress on this circumstance, of which their ad- versaries could give no satisfactory explanation. But M. le Gallois has demonstrated in the me- moir to which we have just alluded, that sudden death in this case only happens in certain kinds of animals, and in these only when they are very young, and that it is the effect of suffoca- tion*, more or less complete from the shutting of the glottis. There is nothing then in these facts in favour of Willis ; to which we may add, that the eighth pair of nerves does not arise from the cerebellum, and that most of the nerves of the heart do not belong to this pair. Boerhaave was of the same opinion with Willis, but besides the nervous influence, he admitted two other causes of the motions of the heart ; the action of the blood of the coro- nary arteries on its fibres, and of the venous blood on the surface of its cavities. Accord- ing to him the concurrence of these three causes produces the systole, and the simultane- ous interruption of their action in consequence of the systole gives rise to the diastole, during * Asphixie. This I translate suffocation, because we use the term Asphixia in a very different sense. Culleni Synopsis Nos. Method. Gen. 44. 6 which their action is renewed *. But this ex- planation, with the exception of what regards the stimulus of the blood on the internal sur- face of the heart, is contradicted by fact, which has not prevented its reception in the schools, with another error that has made no less noise. We allude to Stahl, and his soul or Archeeus, which, regulating all the movements of the living body, subjecting them to the will, or rendering them independent of it, according as they are merely useful, or absolutely neces- sary to life, presides above all over those of the heart, and, through the influence of the nerves, insures their continuance; a species of reverie which is inconsistent with all the true principles of Physiology. After all, where would the Stahlians place this simple and indivisible being ? In the brain without doubt. But then, how does it happen that an animal may live, and the mo- tion of its heart continue after it is decapitated ? Would they place it in the heart itself? But all animals, and especially those of cold blood, live a longer or shorter time after the heart is CUt OUt * Her. Boerhaave Instit. Medic®, § 409 — Vanswieten in Aphorismos, &c. Lugduni Batav. 1745, Tom. 2, p. IS. t For an exposition and refutation of this system, see Haller’s Element. Physiolog. Tom. 1, p. 4S0 — S, and Tom. 4, p. 517—34. 7 Other writers, such as Abraham Eus *, Stce- helmf, &c., have also endeavoured to explain the motions of the heart ; but their systems, almost as soon forgotten as conceived, do not deserve to detain us. Those of Boerhaave and Stahl reigned almost alone, when in 1752 Haller published his ex- periments on irritability. These experiments and those of his followers tend to prove, that the contractile power belongs essentially to the muscular fibre. That property which Haller sometimes speaks of under the name of vis insita , sometimes after Glisson, under that of irritability, is the source of all the motions which take place in the animal ; but it cannot produce them except some cause, some stimulus determines it to act. Thus all muscular motion implies two things, the irritability which pro- duces the contraction of the muscle, and the stimulus which determines the irritability to act. The irritability is every where the same. It only varies in intensity' in the different mus- cles ; but it does not obey the same stimuli in all the muscles. The nervous power is the natural stimulus to all those which are under the influence of the will ; and it is by exciting * Dissertatio Physiol, de causa vices cordis alternas pro- ducente. Ludg. Batav. 1745. t Dissertatio de pulsibus. Basileae, 174.9- 8 l or suspending 1 the action of that power on the irritability of such or such muscles, that the will causes any particular part to act or to be at rest. It is not thus with the muscles of involuntary motion ; these are affected by stimuli of different kinds, which are appropriated to their different functions, and altogether different from the nervous power. It is the blood which is the natural stimulus of the irritability of the heart : alimentary substances, of that of the intestinal canal, &c. We easily deduce from these principles the explanation of the leading circumstances which we observe in the motions of the heart. Thus its motions are involuntary, because they are independent of the nervous system ; they take place without interruption during life, because the irritability which produces them belongs essentially to the fibres of the heart, and the blood which excites them is constantly supplied to this organ by the veins as it is carried off by the arteries. The systole and diastole suc- ceed each other alternately and regularly, be- cause the stimulus of the blood always occasions the former both in the auricles and ventricles, and the systole itself, by expelling the stimulus, occasions the diastole, which renews the systole by allowing access to new blood. Such is a summary view of the celebrated 9 Hallerian theory of irritability. That theory was not contrived in the closet like the others of which we have spoken : it was founded, as we have said, on experiments made by Haller himself, and by the most distinguished of his scholars, who then occupied, or have since occupied, the first rank among the Anatomists and Physicians of the last age. The infer- ences from these experiments, which were re- peated throughout Europe, found almost every where supporters ; but they found also some opponents of the greatest reputation. The prin- cipal cause of this difference of opinion, and that respecting which authors have not yet been able to come to any agreement, is the question, whether the motions of the heart are really in- dependent of the nervous system ? We may reduce to three heads the facts by which the school of Haller has supported the affirmative. 1st. If we interrupt all communi- cation between the heart and the brain, the only source of nervous power , by dividing the nerves which go to the heart, the spinal mar- row in the neck, or even by decapitation, the motions of the heart continue as before. 2d. If we cut out the heart of a living animal, and place it on a table, it continues to beat, and sometimes for a long time. M. de Humboldt has shewn that it beats more strongly, and for a longer time, when it is suspended. 3d. 10 We always produce convulsions, even for some time after death, in the muscles of voluntary motion, by irritating their nerves, either me- chanically or in any other way. On the con- trary, the irritation of the cardiac nerves occasions no change in the motions of the heart, nor re-calls them when they have ceased. The same observation is true of the Medulla oblongata and spinal marrow, the irritation of which occasions strong general convulsions, but produces no effect upon the heart. These facts are correct, except perhaps those of the third head, respecting which there is some difference of opinion. For in admitting them, the adversaries of irritability have asked, Why, if the nervous power has no action on the heart, is this organ supplied with nerves, and why is it so evidently subjected to the influence of the passions P Haller never gave any satis- factory explanation of these objections, but every thing proves that he felt all their force. When we read with attention all that he has said of the motions of the heart, in his dis- sertations on irritability*, and above all in his great work on Physiology j\ we are struck with the contradictions which we meet with in them, and which makes the perusal of them fatiguing. * Memoires sur la nature sensible et irritable des parties, etc; Lausanne, 1756. — Opera Minora, Tom. 1. t Element. Physiol, lib. iv. sect. 5, et lib. xi. sect. 3. 11 Through all of them his great object is to prove, that the motions of the heart are in- dependent of the nervous system. All the facts, all the experiments, all the observations which he brings forward, tend to this end ; and yet he seems to admit in several places that the nerves possess an influence over the heart. It is true that it is with an air of doubt that he admits it, and confines himself to say- ing, that it is possible, that it is not unlikely, that the heart derives a power of motion from the nerves* * * § . These contradictions with which several justly celebrated writers have reproached him, amongst others MM. Prochaska f, Beh- rendsj, Ernest Plainer §, &c., proceed evi- dently from his not being able to reconcile the results of experiments with the influence of the nervous power over the motions of the heart ; and, in rejecting this influence, finding it im- possible to explain the use of the cardiac nerves and the effect of the passions on the heart. Here is the great difficulty in the controversy of which we speak. Those who, like Fontana, formally reject all intervention of the nervous * Element Physiol, lib. iv. sect. 5, p. 493, et alibi passim. t Opera Minora, Viennae, 1S00, Tom. II. p. 90. t Vol. 3, p. 4, of the Collection of Ludwig, entitled Scrip- tores neurolog. minores selecti, Lipsiae, 1791 — 3, Four volumes, in 4to. § Vol. 2, p. 2 66, of the same Collection. 12 influence, have been forced to admit that the nerves, destined to convey to every other part life, feeling, and motion, have no known use in the heart*. Such consequences evidently disclose the insufficiency of the theory of Haller, and seve- ral of his followers have acknowledged the necessity of some modification of it, and admit the nervous power to be one of the principles on which irritability depends. They are thus enabled to assign a use to the nerves of the heart, and to explain the influence of the pas- sions on this organ. But when they have attempted to explain why the interruption of all communication between the brain and the heart does not stop the motions of the latter, they have been obliged to abandon the gene- rally received opinion, which regards the brain as the only centre and source of nervous power’ and have admitted, without any direct proofs, that that power is generated throughout the whole extent of the nervous system, even in the smallest nerves, and that it can exist for a certain time in the nerves of any part inde- pendently of the brain. Among the authors of this opinion, the learned Professor Prochaska is one of those who has given the best account * Memoires sur les parties sensibl. et irritab. Tom. 3. p. 234. See also Caldani, ib. p. 471, and Le Trait6 sur le venin de la vipere, Tom. II. p. 169—171. 13 of it*. But when he applies it to the motions of the heart, and attempts to explain why they are independent of the will and yet influenced by the passions, his opinion appears undecided. He has recourse to the ganglions, and hesitates what function to ascribe to them. Sometimes he considers them as knots, as ligatures, so tight as to intercept all communication be- tween the heart and Sensorium Commune , in the calm and peaceful state of the system, but not sufficient to prevent the Sensorium re-act. ing more or less powerfully on the heart in the agitation of the passions f. Sometimes he seems to believe that the interception is complete and constant, and that it is by the nerves of the eighth pair that the passions affect the heart £ ; and he seems to adopt the opinion of Winslow §, renewed by Winterl ||, John- stone Unzer**, Lecatft? PeflfingerJJ, &c., * Commentatio de functionibus systematis nervosi, published in the third fasciculus of the Annotationes Academ. of this writer, and re-printed at Vienna in his Opera Minora, in 1800. t Opera Minora, Tom. 2, p. 165. I Ibid, p. l67. § Exposit. Anatom. Traite des Nerfs, § 364. || Nov. Inflam. Theoria, Viennae, 1767 , cap. 5, p. 154. H Essay on the Use of the Ganglions, 1771. ** Unzer quoted by Prochaska, oper. minor. Tom. 2, p. 169 . tt Traite de 1’ existence de la nature et des proprietes du fluide ncrveux, Berlin, 1765, p. 225. II De structura nervorum, Argentorati, 1 7S2, Sect. 1, § 34, inserted in the Collection of Ludwig, vol. 1. 14 that the ganglions are so many small brains. He admits at the same time that the nerves of feeling are distinct from those of motion, so that the heart cannot contract except when the impression of the stimulus on its cavities is transmitted to the ganglions by the nerves of feeling, and reflected on its fibres by the nerves of motion*. But besides that this opinion, even by the author’s confession, is only a con- jecture, it supposes on the one hand, that the circulation would continue after the destruction of the spinal marrow ; and, on the other, that the heart would cease to beat at the moment when its communication with the ganglions and the Plexus is interrupted. Now both these suppositions are contradicted by facts. These fruitless attempts to modify the theory of irritability by the intervention of the nervous power, have only increased the zeal of some authors to maintain that theory in its original purity, and as the use of the nerves of the heart was among the most embarrassing ob- jections to it, M. Scemmerring, one of the most profound Anatomists of Germany, and Behrends, one of his most distinguished scho- lars, maintained, in 1792, that the heart has no nerves, and that all those which appear to enter it are expended on the coats of the co- ronary arteries, without the fibres of the heart Opera Minor. Tom. II. p. 169. 15 receiving a single thread* ; an opinion which far from removing all the difficulties, only ren- ders the influence of the passions on the mo- tions of the heart more inexplicable. These two authors maintain that the cardiac nerves support and increase the irritability of the co- ronary arteries ; but the existence of irritability- in the arteries is still doubtful, and were it de- monstrated, it would be very strange if irritabi- lity depended on the nervous influence in the arteries ; and in the heart, the most irritable of all the organs, it were wholly independent of this influence. Science, however, has cause to rejoice at the groundless doubts proposed by M. Behrends respecting the cardiac nerves, since they have induced the learned Scarpa to take part in the dispute, and have procured for us his excellent work on the nerves of the heartf. M. Scarpa proves in that work that the nerves of the heart are as numerous, and are distributed in the same way, as in other muscles. He admits with M. Prochaska, that sensibility and irrita- bility are essentially united, and that the nervous influence is generated throughout the whole extent of the nerves ; but he does not * Behrends Dissertatio qua demonstratur cor nervis carere, Moguntiae, 1792, inserted in the third vol. of the Collection of Ludwig. t Tab. neurolog. ad illust. hist. anat. cardiacorum nervorum, &c. Ticini, 1794. 16 admit that the ganglions are so many little brains*. He seems to believe that the nervous influence, such as it exists in all the nerves, is of itself sufficient for the exercise of the dif- ferent functions, and that it only wants the sti- mulus which excites it to action. That the sti- mulus of the muscles of voluntary motion comes from the brain, and that in ordinary states the blood is the stimulus of the heart : but that in vivid emotion the brain also becomes a stimulus to this organ f- According to this opinion the heart ought to beat in the same manner, and with the same force, after decapitation, after the destruction of the spinal marrow, and after it is removed from the body. M. Scarpa himself compares the beat- ing of the heart in apoplexy to that which we observe when it no longer communicates either with the brain or spinal marrow -J. But we shall see in the sequel that it is very different. We must not omit a very important remark of this author, and which it is surprising was not sooner made : it respects the insensibility of the heart when we irritate the spinal marrow and the cardiac nerves. M. Scarpa observes, that that insensibility of which so much has been said, and which has been regarded as a * Tab. neurolog. ad illust. hist. anat. cardiacorum nervorum, &c. § 30. Ticini, 1794. t Ibid, § 22, 24, 25, 2 6 , 27, 2 9- J Ibid, § 25. 17 demonstrative proof that the motions of the heart do not depend on the nerves, proves only that the nerves of the heart are not of the same kind with those of the muscles of volun- tary motion, and that the nervous power does not in them obey the same laws *. This re- flection is without doubt very judicious, and it is by an error of experimental logic that we are surprised not to obtain the same effects from the irritation of two orders of nerves wholly different. The work of M. Scarpa did not induce Dr. Scemmerring -j* to change his opinion, nor pre- vent Bichat from denying that the nervous power has any share in the motions of the heart J. This last writer maintains the exist- ence of an animal and organic life, distinct from each other, and of a nervous system for each of these lives. The system of the ganglions, which he regards in the same point of view with the authors above quoted, as small brains, belong to the organic life, and the cerebral system to the animal life §. To be consistent * Tab. neurolog. ad illust. hist. anat. cardiacorum nervorum, &c. § 20. t Th. Soemmerring de corporis humani fabrica Trajecti ad Masnum, 1796, tom. III. p. 30, 43, 46, 50, et ibid., 1800, Tom. V. p. 43. X Bichat. Recherch. Phys. sur la vie et la morl, Paris, 1800, Part II. Art. 11, § 1. § Ibid., Part I. Art. 6, §4. Ibid., Art. 1, §2, c / 18 with himself, Bichat should have admitted, like M. Prochaska, that the heart, the centre of organic life, derives from the ganglions the principle of its motions; but he has not done so. It is chiefly the galvanic experiments which has brought him into this inconsistency, be- cause he had attempted in vain to produce contractions in the heart by galvanising the cardiac nerves; experiments on which iM. Soemmerring and Behrends had also endea- voured to support their opinion. These ex- periments may always succeed, as one of us found in 1797*. and three years before was found by Mr. Fowler j*. Such is a short but faithful account of the principal systems, by means of which authors have, since the discovery of the circulation of the blood to this day, attempted to explain the motions of the heart. On taking a general view of them we remark, that in all those invented before Haller £, the nervous power is considered, in one w-ay or other, as one of the conditions essential to the production of * M. de Humboldt. Experiences sur 1’ irritation de la fibre nerveuse et musculaire, publiees en 1797, et traduites en Francais deux ans apres, Tom. I. Chap. 9. t Experiments on Animal Electricity, by Richard Fowler, 1794. I Also in those of Ens, of Stcehelin, and others of whom we have spoken. the motions of the heart ; and it is always and only in the brain that they place the seat of it. The cardiac nerves, therefore had a de- termined use in all these systems, and one could easily understand why the heart is sub- ject to the empire of the passions; but it was impossible to explain why the circulation con- tinues in acephalous animals, and why in ex- periments on animals, the interruption of all communication between the brain and the heart does not stop the motions of the latter. Since Haller, irritability has been the basis of all these systems. In regarding that property as essential to the fibre and independent of the nervous influence, the circulation in acephal- ous animals, and the different phenomena ob- served in the experiments alluded to, present nothing that is not easily understood ; but the use of the nerves of the heart and*the influence of the passions on that organ become inex- plicable. The necessity of removing these difficulties has produced two parties among the supporters of irritability. The one, zealous favourers of the doctrine of pure irritability, called to their aid the most improbable hy- potheses, and all their efforts have only served to prove how difficult it is to support the cause they espouse. The other confounded the nerv- ous power with irritability, w hich they consider as one of the functions of that power ; but c 2 20 they have been obliged to admit, either with respect to the seat, or the manner of existence, of the nervous power, conditions, which, by their own confession, are far from being de- monstrated, respecting which they are not agreed, and which, in the application they make of them to the motions of the heart, either do not wholly remove the old difficulties or create new ones. One may easily see why so little progress has been made in this great and long dis- puted question. If we examine all that has been said on the subject since the days of Haller, we shall find, that both sides have con- stantly brought forward nearly the same facts, the same experiments, and the same reason- ings. The only new experiments are the ap- plications of galvanism to stimulate the cardiac nerves; and they are only new in appearance, for from the time of Haller electricity has been employed with the same view # . It is evident that science had nothing to expect from our pursuing a path trodden for nearly sixty years by so many celebrated men. It was necessary to open new roads ; it was necessary to find or invent new modes of interrogating nature. It was, above all, necessary to introduce into * See, amongst others, Mem. sur les parties sensib. et irritab. Tom. III. p. 214. 21 physiological experiments, that precision and severe logic to which other branches of physical science have, in our days, owed so great pro- gress. It is this which the author of the memoir before us has done. It was not the original object of M. leGallois to explore the cause of the motions of the heart. He had adopted the theory of Haller on this subject, when experiments undertaken with other views led him to the singular conclusion, that it was impossible for him to understand his own experiments, without determining whether the nervous power influences the motions of the heart ; and if so, in what way it has this effect. To make his work better understood, we shall relate on what occasion, and by what chain of facts and reasonings he was led to en- gage in this inquiry. A peculiar case of labour some years ago excited in him a wish to know how long a full- grown foetus can live without breathing, after all communication between it and the mother has ceased. That question, curious in itself, and of the first importance in the practice of midwifery and medical jurisprudence, had hardly been touched upon by authors. M. le Gallois undertook to resolve it by direct expe- riments on animals ; and that the solution might be generally applicable, and extend to as many cases as possible, he placed the foetus of animals in various situations similar to those in which the human foetus is occasionally placed, when it ceases to communicate with the mo- ther. Among these there is one which occurs too often, namely, the foetus suffering decolla- tion from artificial delivery by the feet. The author wished to know what happens to the foetus in this case, whether it perishes at the instant of decollation, and how deatii takes place. He found that the trunk retains its life, and that if hemorrhage be prevented, by throwing a ligature round the vessels of the neck, it dies in the same time and with the same symptoms as if, without taking off the head, respiration had been interrupted; and w hat completely demonstrated to him that a decapitated animal is in fact suffocated, is, that we may at pleasure prolong its existence b\ in- flating the lungs to supply the place of natural respiration. M. le Gallois concluded from these facts, that decollation proves fatal by destroying the mo- tions of inspiration, and that consequently the power on which these motions depend is in the brain ; but that that on w hich the life of the trunk depends is in the trunk itself. En- deavouring to ascertain the precise seat of each of these powers, he found that that on which the motions of inspiration depend resides in that part of the medulla oblongata from which 23 the eighth pair of nerves take their rise ; and that on which the life of the trunk depends, in the spinal marrow. It is not by all the spinal marrow that every part of the body is animated, but only by that portion from which it receives its nerves ; so that in destroying any particular part of the spinal marrow, we only destroy life in those parts of the body which correspond to that part. Besides, if we interrupt the circu- lation in any particular part of the spinal mar- row, life is weakened, and soon extinguished in all the parts which receive nerves from it. There are, therefore, two ways of destroying life in any part of an animal ; the one destroy- ing that part of the spinal marrow from which it receives itsnerves, the other interrupting the circulation in this part of the spinal marrow. It hence results, that two conditions are ne- cessary to preserve the life of any part of the body, viz., the integrity of the corresponding part of the spinal marrow, and the circulation of the blood, and consequently that we may preserve life in any part of an animal as long as we can preserve in it these two conditions. We may, for example, preserve the life of the ante- rior parts after that of the posterior parts is de- stroyed, by destroying the correspondingportion of the spinal marrow, or vice versa. M. le Gallois, whose constant practice was to seek in direct experiments a confirmation 24 of’ the consequences which he deduced from preceding ones, wished to know if in fact it is possible to make any particular part live after the others are dead. In a rabbit, twenty days old, he destroyed all the lumbar portion of thfe spinal marrow. This operation occasioning no immediate injury to the rest of the spinal mar- row, and, according to the theory of Haller, the circulation not being affected by it, he had every reason to expect, reasoning from the preceding experiments, that the animal would have lived for a considerable length of time, and that it would only have died in conse- quence of the symptoms produced by so severe an injury ; but the respiration ceased in a mi- nute or two, and in less than four minutes it shewed no sign of life. This experiment was repeated several times with the same result, nor was it possible to prevent it. Thus it was proved, that a rabbit of twenty days old can- not survive the loss of the lumbar portion of the spinal marrow ; which appeared the more surprising, because rabbits of this age con- tinue to live very well after decapitation, that is, after the total loss of the brain. This fact, which the author could not reconcile with his preceding experiments, led him to discover, that the power on which the action of the heart de- pends ( le principe des forces dn cceur) resides in the spinal marrow. 25 M. le Gallois then ascertained that the de- struction of either the dorsal or cervical portion of the spinal marrow was fatal to rabbits of twenty days old, even in a shorter time than that of the lumbar portion, in about two mi- nutes. He found that the same experiments re- peated on rabbits of different ages did not give the same results. In general the destruction of the lumbar portion was not suddenly fatal to rabbits under ten days old, and some at the age of fifteen days survived it. Beyond twenty days old the effect is the same as at this age. Very young rabbits continued to live after the de- struction either of the dorsal or cervical portion, but for a shorter time ; and in a smaller num- ber of cases, after the destruction of the latter than after that of the dorsal portion. None after the age of fifteen days survived the destruction of either. In all those partial destructions of the spinal marrow, even where the death is sudden, it is instantaneous only in the parts which receive their nerves from the destroyed part, and only extends to the rest of the body at the end of a certain time ; but this time is fixed, and no means can prolong it. It is the same in animals of the same kind and of the same age ; and the longer, the nearer the animal is to the time of its birth. Eor example, when the cervical part of the spinal marrow is destroyed 26 in rabbits, life is instantly lost in the whole of the neck ; but it continues in the head, as appears from the gaspings it excites ; it con- tinues also in the parts below the shoulder, as the continuance of their feeling and voluntary motion shews. In the first day after birth, the gaspings continue about twenty minutes, the sensibility and motion of the rest of the body fifteen minutes. At the age of fifteen days, the duration of the gaspings does not exceed three minutes ; that of sensibility and motion two and a half. In fine, at the age of thirty days the gaspings cease in a minute and a half, and the sensibility in a minute. After the de- struction of the dorsal portion of the spinal marrow, it is the chest and not the neck which is instantly struck with death. In other re- spects the phenomena and their duration are the same. If the three portions of the spinal mar- row are destroyed at once, the gaspings, the only signs of life which then remain, have still, at the different ages, the durations just pointed out. The author, who had so often decapitated rabbits of different ages, had always remarked, that the head, separated from the body, con- tinued to gasp during a time determined by the age. This time was evidently the same as after the destruction of the spinal marrow. Now it is evident that after decapitation there 27 can be no longer any circulation in the head, and that the gaspings which take place in that case can only continue for the time during which life may exist in the brain, after the total ceasing of the circulation. This was the first indication which M. le Gallois had, that when the partial destruction of the spinal mar- row occasions death throughout all the rest of the body, it is because it suddenly arrests the circulation. To assure himself of this, he cut out the heart at the base of the great vessels, in rabbits of every fifth day old from birth to the age of a month: and having- noted with care the duration of the different signs of life from the moment at which the circulation was thus stopped, he found, that their duration was precisely the same as after the destruction of the spinal marrow. He might have considered this coincidence as suf- ficient to decide the question ; but he wished to ascertain in a more direct manner, if the cir- culation actually ceases at the moment the spinal marrow is destroyed. The absence of hemorrhagy and the emptiness of the arteries were the most evident signs that he could have of the circulation having ceased ; and he found, in fact, that soon after the above operation, the carotids were found empty, and the amputation of the limbs occasioned no hemorrhagy, though performed near to the 28 trunk, and before life was extinct in the parts of which the spinal marrow had not been de- stroyed. In a word, all the signs which shew the state of the circulation demonstrated to him, that when the destruction of any part of the spinal marrow suddenly occasions death in the rest of the body, it is by stopping this function ; and this effect takes place, not because the mo- tion of the heart immediately ceases, but because it is no longer capable of throwing the blood even into the carotids. Hence it follows, that it is in the spinal marrow that the power on which the motion of the heart depends resides, and in the whole of it, since the destruction of any one of its three portions is capable of stopping 1 the circu- lation. It also follows, that each portion of the spinal marrow influences life in two different ways ; by the one it is essential to the existence of life in the parts which receive nerves from it ; by the other, it preserves it throughout the body in general, by contributing to furnish to the organs which receive nerves from the great sympathetic, and particularly to the heart, the life and power, (le principe de force et de v'te J necessary to the performance of their func- tions. Thus we see, that to make the anterior or posterior parts of an animal live after killing the rest of the body, by destroying the cor- 29 responding parts of the spinal marrow, we must prevent the destruction of these parts from stopping the circulation. Now this is easily done by diminishing the sum of the forces, which the heart must impart for the support of the circulation, in proportion as we diminish the power which it receives from the spinal marrow. It is sufficient for this purpose to di- minish by ligatures, thrown round the arteries, the extent of the parts to which the heart sends the blood. We have seen, for example, that the destruction of the lumbar part of the spinal marrow is quickly fatal to rabbits at or beyond the age of twenty days ; but this is not the case if we previously throw a ligature round the ventral aorta between the cceliac and anterior mesenteric arteries. The application of this principle to other parts of the body leads to the singular conclu- sion, that in order to maintain life in rabbits of a certain age, after the destruction of the cervical part of the spinal marrow, we must previously cut off the head. They certainly die if this part of the spinal marrow is destroyed without previous decapitation. This fact ceases to surprise, when we reflect that by decapita- tion, we lessen by the head the extent of the circulation, and that by that means the heart having need of less force to support the circu- lation, we may enfeeble it by the destruction 30 of the cervical part of the spinal marrow, with- out destroying the circulation. One may easily conceive that any other ope- ration capable of suspending or considerably enfeebling the circulation in any part of an animal may produce a similar etfect ; and enable us in like manner, to destroy such a portion of the spinal marrow, as would have been fatal Avithout this previous operation. This is what happens in the partial destruction of the spinal marrow itself. It has tAvo effects on the circulation ; by the one it enfeebles it, generally by depriving the heart of that share of its power which it receives from the part, of the spinal marrow that has been destroy ed ; by the other, without Avholly destroying the circulation in the parts which are thus deprived of life, it in a great degree lessens it in a Avav in some measure similar to the effect of liga- tures thrown round the arteries of these parts. But this effect is not remarked till a feAv minutes after the destruction of the spinal marrow. Thus it is the destruction of the first part of the spinal marrow which enables us to destroy a second ; this a third, and so on. For ex- ample, when, by decapitating a rabbit, Ave are enabled to destroy the cervical part of the spinal marrow, the destruction of that part in a certain number of minutes enables us to de- stroy the fourth part of the dorsal portion of 31 the spinal marrow, and thus by continuing to destroy parts of similar extent, by intervals, we may at length destroy the whole of this portion of the spinal marrow without stopping the cir- culation, which is then supported by the lumbar portion only. We may collect from what has just been said, that in rabbits, each portion of the spinal mar- row bestows on the heart power sufficient to support the circulation in all those parts which correspond to that portion, and consequently, that in cutting a rabbit transversely, it would be possible to make each portion live for an in- definite time, if the lungs and the heart, neces- sary for the formation and circulation of arterial blood, could make part of it. But they can only make part of the chest, and one may very well maintain the life of the chest alone and in- sulated, after having cut off both the anterior and posterior parts, and prevented hemorrhagy by proper ligatures, and that even in rabbits thirty days old or more. Such are the principal results of M. le Gal- lois J researches, results which arise one from the other, and mutually supporting each other, are founded on direct experiments, made with a precision hitherto unknown in Physiology. We are now going to relate such of those experiments as the author repeated in our presence. We devoted to these repetitions 32 three meetings, each of several hours’ dura- tion ; and, in order to avoid all precipitation, and to give us time to weigh the facts at leisure, we allowed a week to intervene between the meetings. Experiments repeated before the Committee of the Institute. We shall divide them into two parts ; the first will comprehend those which tend to prove that the origin of all the motions of inspiration re- side in that part of the medulla oblongata which gives rise to the eighth pair of nerves. In the second, we shall relate those whose object is to prove that the heart derives its power from the spinal marrow. Is/. Experiments relating to the power on which the motions of inspiration depend. The author, in a rabbit of five days old, detached the larynx from the os hyoides, and exposed the glottis that we might observe its movements ; after which he opened the head, and first extracted the cerebrum and then the cerebellum. After these operations the inspi- rations continued ; they were each characterized by four simultaneous movements, namely, a gasping, the opening of the glottis, the e]e- vation of the ribs, and the contraction of the diaphragm ; these four movements having been observed, and found to continue for a certain time, according to the age of the animal, the author extracted the medulla oblongata, and in a moment these movements ceased alto- gether. The portion of the medulla oblongata which was extracted extended to the occipital hole, and included the origin of the eighth pair of nerves. The same experiment was repeated on an- other rabbit of the same age, with this difference, that after the extraction of the cerebrum and cerebellum, instead of removing so large a portion of the medulla oblongata all at once, it was extracted successively, by portions of about the thickness of three millimetres. The four motions of inspiration continued after the ex- traction of the three first slices, but ceased im- mediately after that of the fourth ; we found that the third slice terminated at the posterior part, and very near to the pons varolii, and that the fourth embraced the origin of the nerves of the eighth pair. This experiment, repeated on other rabbits, constantly gave the same result. The same experiment was made on a cat five weeks old, except that before the medulla ob- longata was removed by slices the two recurrent nerves were divided. The glottis immediately D 34 closed and remained immoveable, but the three other motions, namely, the gaspings, the ele- vation of the ribs, and the contractions of the diaphragm continued, and only ceased at the moment when that portion of the medulla ob- longata, in which the eighth pair of nerves originate, was removed. It is evident that if in place of destroying that part from which all the motions of inspi- ration are derived, one only cuts off the com- munication between it and the organs which perform these motions, he will produce the same effect ; that is to say, will stop those motions whose organs have no longer any communication with the part in question. This is what we have just seen happened in the cat, in which the division of the recurrent nerves stopped the motions of the glottis with- out stopping the other three motions. In order to suspend these it is sufficient to observe how their organs communicate with the medulla oblongata. Now it is clear that it is by the intercostal nerves, and consequently by the spinal marrow, that the medulla oblongata acts upon the muscles which raise the ribs, and that it is by the phrenic neiwes, and conse- quently by the spinal marrow also, that it acls on the diaphragm. In dividing the spinal marrow about the last cervical vertebra, and below the origin of the phrenic nerves, one 35 ought therefore to stop the motions of the ribs 5 but not those of the diaphragm : and in divid- ing the spinal marrow between the occiput and the origin of the phrenic nerves, we ought to destroy at once the motions of the ribs and those of the diaphragm, and this is in fact what happens. The author, after the motions of the thorax had been well observed in a rabbit about ten days old, divided the spinal marrow about the seventh cervical vertebra. Such of these motions as depend on the elevation of the ribs, immediately ceased, but the con- traction of the diaphragm continued. He then divided the spinal marrow about the first cer- vical vertebra, and immediately the diaphragm ceased to contract. Lastly, he divided the eighth pair of nerves about the middle of the neck, and the motions of the glottis ceased. Thus of the four motions of inspiration there remained only the gaspings, which shewed that the medulla oblongata still preserved the power to produce all the motions, and that it only failed to produce the other three because it no longer had any communication with their or- gans. We ought to observe here, that several authors, amongst others Arnemann, before M. le Gallois, had observed that the division of the spinal marrow only stopped the motions of the diaphragm when it was made between the occiput and the origin of the phrepic d 2 36 nerves ; but these authors regarded the brain as the only source of life, and of all the motions of the body. They thought, accordingly, ihat the division of the spinal marrow instantly pa- ralyzed all parts of the body whose nerves arose from the spinal marrow below the part at which it was divided ; and, therefore, that when the division was made near the occiput the diaphragm ceased to contract, because it partook of the paralysis of all the parts below the division. But M. le Gallois has demon- strated, that the division of the spinal marrow, made about the first or last cervical vertebra, only stops the motions of inspiration, and allows to remain throughout the body both feeling and voluntary motion. This distinc- tion is essential. No person made it before him. It is not only in warm-blooded animals that these experiments produce the results which we have described. To prove that these re- sults belong to the general laws of the animal economy, and that the nervous power obeys the same laws in all vertebral animals, the author took a frog, and after having remarked that in these animals, which have neither ribs nor diaphragm, there are but two kinds of motions of inspiration, namely, those of the glottis, which opens in the form of a lozenge, and those of the throat, which is alternately raised I 37 and lowered, he cutoff the anterior half of the brain, the two motions continued ; he then destroyed about the half of that which re- mained ; the motions still continued. In fine, he carried the destruction of the brain as far as the occiputal hole, and the two motions in- stantly ceased. In another frog he divided the spinal marrow about the third vertebra ; the motions of inspiration continued. In a third frog it was divided between the occiput and the first vertebra ; the motion of the throat, which represents that of the diaphragm, immediately ceased. After these two last experiments the frogs were and remained alive, both in the head and the rest of the body ; but they could not govern their motions, and in this respect were in the same state as the first frog, whose brain had been destroyed. 2d. Experiments relative to the Principle on which the Power of the Heart depends. The author has already proved that life al- ways continues for a certain time, even in warm-blooded animals, after the total ceasing of the circulation, and that the length of this time is influenced by the age of the animal. He opened the chest and cut out the heart of a rabbit of five or six days old ; he did the same in another of ten days old. In the first 38 the gaspings ceased in seven minutes, and the sensibility in four after the excision of the heart. In the second the gaspings lasted only four minutes and the sensibility only three. The cervical and a small portion of the dorsal part of the spinal marrow were then destroyed in another rabbit of the same litter with the last, and immediately afterwards the lungs were in- flated ; notwithstanding this assistance the gasp- ings ceased at the end of three minutes and a half, and the sensibility in a little more than two and a half ; periods which coincide, we see, to nearly half a minute with those observed after the excision of the heart. In order to prove that in this experiment it is really by stopping the circulation that the destruction of a part of the spinal marrow de- stroys the life of the rest of the body, the author divided the spinal marrow of a rabbit of the same age with the two last, near the occiput. After this division the carotid arteries were black, but round and full, and on the ampu- tation of a limb, black blood flowed; having inflated the lungs, the carotids quickly re- gained a fine red colour, and blood also flowed from the limb of the same colour. These ap- pearances left no doubt that the circulation continued after the division of the spinal mar- row near the occiput. The author then de- stroyed in this rabbit the same portion of the 39 spinal marrow as in the preceding. The caro- tids instantly became flaccid, and soon appeared empty and flat. The two thighs, amputated in less than two minutes after the destruction of the spinal marrow did not supply a drop of blood. The destruction of the cervical part of the spinal marrow in several other rabbits, from twenty to thirty days old, gave precisely the same results, that is to say, the carotids soon appeared empty, and no blood flowed on the amputation of the limbs ; and notwithstanding the most careful inflation of the lungs, the signs of life remained no longer than after the exci- sion of the heart, according to the tables which M. le Gallois has given of the different ages in his paper. The results were the same with respect to the emptiness of the carotid arteries, the absence of hemorrhagy, and the duration of life, after the destruction of the dorsal part of the spinal marrow. The destruction of the lumbar part of the spinal marrow in rabbits of four and five weeks old gave similar results, with this only differ- ence, that the circulation did not stop imme- diately, as after the destruction of the cervical and dorsal parts of the spinal marrow ; but at the end of about two minutes, and in one case at the end of four minutes, which proves 40 that the action of the lumbar part of the spinal marrow upon the heart, though evident and very great, is not so immediate as that of each of the other portions. After having proved by these experiments that the circulation depends on all parts of the spinal marrow, the author shewed us that there is none of these portions which may not be destroyed with impunity, if we confine to a certain space the parts to which the heart sends the blood. After opening the belly of a rab- bit six weeks old, he threw a ligature round the aorta, between the caeliac and anterior mesenteric arteries, after which he destroyed the whole of the lumbar part of the spinal marrow. This rabbit continued quite alive, supporting itself upon its fore legs, and hold- ing up its head more than half an hour after- wards, when the Committee finished Iheir sit- ting ; while another rabbit, of nearly the same age, used for the sake of comparison, in which the lumbar portion of the spinal marrow had been destroyed w ithout securing the aorta, died in less than two minutes. M. le Gallois then made the experiment of destroying the cervical portion of the spinal marrowy the action of which upon the heart is more immediate, and still more considerable than the lumbar, in rabbits of five or six w eeks old, without stopping the circulation. After 41 having decapitated the animal with the ordinary precaution, he performed artificial inspiration during five minutes, at the end of which he destroyed the whole of the cervical part of the spinal marrow ; he renewed the artificial in- spiration immediately after, and the animal remained alive as long a time as it was judged proper to continue this operation. The same experiment was repeated with the same result on two other rabbits of the same age ; in one of these, five minutes after hav- ing destroyed the cervical part of the spinal marrow, the author destroyed about one-third of the dorsal part of the spinal marrow, then five minutes after a second third, and the re- maining part again in five minutes. The circulation and the life of the animal continued after the destruction of the two first third parts, and only ceased after that of the last. Dur- ing the whole of the experiment artificial respiration had only been interrupted for the time necessary for the destruction of the spinal marrow. These experiments led M. le Gallois to that much more difficult one, the object of which is to prove, that in limiting by ligatures the cir- culation to those parts which correspond to any particular pbrtion of the spinal marrow, that portion gives to the heart power to support the circulation in those parts. He separated the 42 upper and lower from the central parts in a rabbit of thirty days old, dividing it below about the first lumbar vertebra, and above about the second cervical vertebra, then by artificial respiration he supported life in the chest thus insulated. We do not describe the particulars of the operation, because the author has de- tailed them in his memoir. We shall confine ourselves to say, that the experiment suc- ceeded perfectly, although an artery, which could not be secured, occasioned a consider- able hemorrhagy, and risked the success of the experiment. In fine, M. le Gallois produced partial death in the hinder parts of the body, in a rabbit of about twelve days old, by tying the aorta between the caeliac and anterior mesenteric arteries. At the end of twelve minutes the death of the parts appearing complete, he un- tied the artery, and life by degrees appeared in the whole of these parts, so that the animal was able to walk with ease. This partial re- surrection proved that we might succeed in the same way with the whole body, if it were pos- sible to re-establish the circulation after the extinction of life in the whole of the spinal marrow ; but the experiments of the author de- monstrate much better than had been done before him, why the renewal of life in the whole body is impossible. 43 The author has also made, in our presence, some experiments on Guinea Pigs ; from which it appears, that in these animals the power of the heart equally depends on the spinal marrow, only it was necessary to destroy greater portions of it, in order to stop the circulation, than in rabbits of the same age. We shall finish the account of the experi- ments which M. le Gallois repeated in our presence, by those on cold-blooded animals, the results of which are altogether in contra- diction to those which the most zealous parti- sans of Haller, and among the rest Fontana *, have obtained, and which have been so much valued. The author opened, on the one hand, the cranium, and on the other, the chest of a frog, and brought the heart into view’ ; he then fixed the animal firmly -j*, and w hile one of us observed the motions of the heart, measuring seconds with a watch, he destroyed the brain and the whole of the spinal marrow by a stilet, introduced by the opening in the cranium : in an instant the motions of the heart stopped, and were not renewed for several seconds, and the rate of their repetition never again be- * Fontana. Mem. sur les parties sensib. et irritab. Tom. III. p. 231. Traitb sur levenindela vipere, &c. Florence, 1781, Tom. II. p. 169, 171. t Ibid., p. 233 of the first of the above works, and 171 of the second. 44 came the same : they were more frequent than before the destruction of the spinal marrow. The same experiment repeated on five frogs constantly gave the same results ; the motions of the heart were not suspended the same num- ber of seconds in all, but the suspension was always very remarkable, as well as the change in the rate of beating. We may add, that the amputation of the thighs of frogs, after the destruction of the spinal marrow, occasioned no hemorrhagy ; and salamanders, decapitated after a similar operation, in like manner lost no blood, while both in the one case and the other there had been hemorrhagy when the spinal marrow was allowed to remain entire. These experiments appear to us completely to confirm all the inferences which the author has deduced from them, and with which he finishes his memoir. To confine ourselves here to the principal points we shall say, that we regard as demonstrated, 1st. That the cause of all the motions of in- spiration has its seat near that part of the me- dulla oblongata which gives rise to the nerves of the eighth pair. 2d. That the cause which animates each part of the body resides in the portion of the spinal marrow from which the nerves of that part are derived. 45 3d. That in like manner it is from the spinal marrow that the heart derives its life and its powers ; but, from the whole spinal mar- row, and not merely from any particular part of it. 4th. That the great sympathetic nerve takes its rise from the spinal marrow, and that the particular character of that nerve is to bring every part to which it is distributed under the immediate influence of the whole nervous power. These results readily explain all the diffi- culties which have arisen since the days of Haller, respecting the causes of the motions of the heart. The reader will recollect that the principal of these are, 1st. Why does the heart receive nerves ? 2d. Why is it influenced by the passions? 3d. Why is it not subjected to the will ? 4th. Why does the circulation continue in acephalous and decapitated animals ? He will recollect also, that till now no explanation has been able to reconcile these points, or at least has not been able to do so without the aid of hypotheses which we have seen give rise to other difficulties. But now we easily con- ceive why the heart receives nerves, and why it is so eminently subject to the influence of the passions, because it is animated by the whole of the spinal marrow. It does not obey the will, because none of the organs which are 46 under the influence of the whole nervous power are subject to it. In fine, the circulation con- tinues in acephalous and decapitated animals, because the motions of the heart do not de- pend on the brain, or only depend upon it in a secondary way. We ought to remark, that this last point, on which M. le Gallois has thrown so much light, presents only confusion and errors in authors of the old school of Haller, as well as in those of the new school. None of them have distinguished the motions of the heart which take place after decapitation, from those which we observe after the excision of this organ, or after the destruction of the spinal marrow' ; and they have thought that both were equally capable of maintaining the circulation. But these motions differ essen- tially. The latter have no power to support the circulation ; they are quite similar to the feeble movements which we may excite in the other muscles for some time after death. M. le Gal- lois calls them motions of irritability, without attaching for the present any other meaning to the term, but that of expressing certain pheno- mena after death. We have still one task to perform; to point out what particularly belongs to M. le Gallois in the work which is the object of this report, and what others are entitled to claim. 47 We can affirm, without fear of contradiction, that every thing in this work belongs to him. To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to read his memoir with attention. Chance suggested to him the idea of his first experi- ment, and that experiment led him to all the others, each of them being suggested to him, and as one may say, forced upon him by that which preceded it. In following him step by step, one observes that his own method has been his only guide, and that it is that alone which has inspired him. Thus, it is a thing without example in Physiology, to see a work of such length, in which all the parts are So con- nected, so dependent on each other, that to have the complete explanation of any one fact, it is necessary to recur to all those by which the au- thor arrived at it, and in which it is impossible to deny one inference without denying all those which precede, and disturbing all those which follow it. One might have expected that in researches so numerous, and which, by the importance of the questions they embrace, have commanded the attention of a great number of philosophers, the author would often have been led, even in confining himself to his own method, to re- peat experiments which had been made by others ; yet among all the experiments found in his memoir we have remarked only two 48 which had been made before him ; one by Fontana, the other by Stenon. The first* consists in inflating - the lung’s, and thus preserv- ing the life of an animal after decapitation. Fontana only made that experiment to supply oxygen to the venous blood ; and one may easily perceive that he was a stranger to the object before us. As the experiment was un- connected with any other subject, and did not serve as a proof of any point of doctrine, little attention was paid to it ; and it was confounded with many other facts, shewing that even warm- blooded animals may live after decapitation without its being suspected that it was the de- capitation which enabled them to live in that state. Hence it is that this experiment remained almost unknown except in some of the Schools of England and Germany ; and M. le Gallois was wholly ignorant of it when he communi- cated to the Society of Medicine at Paris his first inquiries into the functions of the spinal marrow. Besides, this experiment in the hands of M. le Gallois was only one of the means by which he demonstrated two of his principal dis- coveries, namely, that the cause of the motions of inspiration has its seat in the medulla ob- longata ; and that the cause of life in the trunk resides in the spinal marrow. * Fontana. Traitfe sur le venin de la vipere, &c. Tom. I. p. 317. 49 The experiment of Stenon is that in which the ventral aorta is tied and then untied, to shew that the interruption of the circulation in any part occasions paralysis of that part, and that the return of the blood restores life to it. This experiment is well known, and has often been repeated. Some of the authors who have made it, had in view to prove that the con- tractions of the muscles depend on the action of the blood on their fibres ; others that the sensibility of every part depends on the circu- lation ; and in both views it served equally to prove or disprove the point, according to the manner in which it was made. Thus, when they secured the ventral aorta, the feeling and motion of the low'er parts of the body quickly ceased *. But when the ligature was made lower, and only on one of the crural arteries, although in this case the circulation w as wholly interrupted in the corresponding member, feel- ing and motion continued in it for a long time In these opposite results each author did not fail to adopt those which favoured his own opinion ; and he thought himself authorized to do so, as the real cause of the difference was unknown. * Lorry, Journal de Med. An. 1757, p. 15. Haller, Mem. sur le Mouvement but capable of both forming the secreted fluids, and causing an evolution of caloric from the blood, after the nervous influence is with- drawn. The nervous power is not more distinct from the muscular, than it is from the sensorial power. We find the first capable of its functions after the last is withdrawn. The only function essential to animal life, in which the sensorial power is concerned, is respi- ration ; and consequently it is by the interrup- tion of this function that the removal of the sensorial power proves fatal, except where the sensorium is so impressed as immediately to de- stroy all the functions. The sensorial power appears to be the last which is produced, and the first whose operation ceases. The foregoing conclusions seem to reconcile all the apparent contradictions stated in the first part of this Inquiry. The heart continues to act for some time after it is removed from the body, and performs its functions in the foetal state when neither the brain nor spinal marrow has existed ; because it has no direct dependence on the nervous system, and is only influenced by the removal of the brain and spinal marrow in the per- 267 feet animal, in consequence of the failure of re- spiration*. The heart is supplied with nerves, and sub- ject to the influence of the passions, because, although independent of the nervous system, it is capable of being - influenced through it. Thus, when we remove the brain and spinal marrow, the action of the heart is unimpaired, because it is independent of these organs. When we crush them it is enfeebled or destroyed, be- cause it is influenced ihrough them ; and the greater the portion destroyed, and the more sudden its destruction, the greater injury the heart sustains. These facts reconcile the ap- parent contradictions in the experiments of M. le Gallois. The heart is independent of the will, because it is exposed to the constantly renewed action of a stimulus, over which the will has no con- trol ; and because there is no act of volition which could be performed through the medium of the heart. The function of the stomach is destroyed by * It is evident from what has been said, that could we per- fectly imitate the function of respiration after the removal of the brain and spinal marrow, the heart would soon begin to feel the effects of the general failure of the secreting power; the failure of the secreting power in the lungs, indeed, as I have already had occasion to observe, probably constitutes one of the chief differences between natural and artificial respiration. 268 withdrawing- the influence of the brain or spinal marrow, while that of the heart is unim- paired ; because the function of the heart de- pends wholly on the muscular power, which we have found in every part of the body inde- pendent of the nervous influence ; while the function of the stomach chiefly depends on the se- cretingpower, which we have found everywhere dependent on this influence. As far as the function of the stomach is muscular, it also con- tinues after the nervous influence is withdraw n. The digested part of the food is still carried on- wards into the intestine. The difficulties stated by M. le Gallois re- specting the function of respiration, seem to disappear when it is admitted, that, although the muscular and nervous pow ers, concerned in this function, are, as M. le Gallois states them to be, independent of the brain ; the sensorial power is here necessary to call them into action: and that the lungs, being chiefly sup- plied with nerves from the eighth pair, the sen- sorial power must, as far as regards them, cease, when that part of the medulla oblongata, from which these nerves originate, and to which all impressions communicated through the spinal marrow must also be sent, is de- stroyed. The powers of respiration remain after decapitation, but the sensation which ex- cites the animal to call them into action is gone. 269 PART III. On the Application of the foregoing Experiments and Observations to explain the Nature and improve the Treatment of Diseases. A considerable length of time alone can shew how far the principles, which seem to be established by the experiments laid before the reader in the preceding Inquiry, may tend to im- prove the knowledge and treatment of diseases. It is my intention, in the present Chapter, to point out in what instances they, at first view, appear to promote these ends. I shall begin with the diseases which arise chiefly from a fault in the sanguiferous, afterwards making some observations on those whose cause chiefly exists in the nervous, system. I use the qualifying words of the preceding sentence, because there is hardly any disease of the sanguiferous, whose symptoms do not in some degree depend on the state of the nervous system ; and on the other 270 hand, in almost all the diseases of the latter, the sanguiferous system is more or less affected. It is evident, however, from a review of the symptoms of these two sets of diseases, that the nervous more amply partakes of the affections of the sanguiferous system, than the sanguifer- ous of those of the nervous system ; the cause of which is sufficiently evident. We have found that the circulation is immediately necessary to the functions of the brain and spinal marrow ; but that those of the heart and blood-vessels may go on for a certain length of time after the former organs have ceased to exist, having only on these organs an indirect dependence through the functions of respiration and se- cretion *. Of the diseases of the sanguiferous system there are some in which the force of the circu- lation is diminished, so that the due supply of blood to the brain fails, producing, according to the degree in which this happens, various symptoms of debility or complete syncope ; and others, in which the vessels of this organ are distended with more than their due proportion of blood, either in consequence of the increased action of the heart and large vessels, or of the vessels of the brain being so far weakened that * See the experiments related in the first and tenth Chapters of Part II. 271 their power of resistance is not in due pro- portion to the usual vis d tergo. The two last states produce the same train of symptoms, ex- cept that in the former the symptoms of a mor- bidly increased impetus of the blood through- out the system are more considerable *. The species of apoplexy depending on these states of the sanguiferous system is very different from that which I shall soon have occasion to speak ' of, in which the cause originates in the brain itself. These species, we shall find, are fre- quently combined ; but when apoplexy, from distension of the vessels, exists alone, the brain seems to re-act but little on the sanguiferous system. It is observed above, that I found by experiment, that considerable uniform pressure either of the brain or spinal marrow pro- duces little or no effect on the motions of the heart * I shall not here enter on the question how far more blood can exist in the encephalon at one time than at another ; but only observe that, however incompressible the brain, and im- movable the parietes of the head, may be, if the brain is com- pressed by an increased force of circulation, there must then be more blood, however little, in the encephalon than when the brain is not compressed ; and when we consider how many openings there are in the scull, filled only by soft medullary matter, we may easily perceive why there may exist within this cavity very evident accumulations of blood, without corre- sponding depletion in some other parts of it, the necessity of which certain anatomists have maintained. t Exp. iS. 272 CHAP. I. On Sanguineous Apoplexy. The only change which, in this species of apoplexy, appears to take place in the action of the heart, is, that it becomes slow and op- pressed, as if acting against a stronger opposing force, and consequently with greater effort than usual. This is easily accounted for by the cir- culation through the lungs becoming more dif- ficult, owing to the muscles of respiration being less readily called into action in proportion as the insensibility increases, and the vessels of the pulmonary system being less powerfully stimulated in proportion as the blood less per- fectly undergoes the change effected by the air. But this is not the only change which takes place in the lungs in apoplexy. They soon begin to be clogged with phlegm, which, in protracted cases, more than the lessened action of the muscles of inspiration, at length appears to occasion suffocation. This is readily ex- plained by the experiments which have been laid before the reader, from which it appears, that when a considerable portion of the nervous influence is withdrawn from the lungs, the fluids destined to form their secretions, being 273 no longer properly changed, accumulate in them till the air-cells and bronchial tubes are so clogged that their function is at length wholly destroyed*. Now in those cases of apoplexy, in which the brain is so oppressed that the various organs are deprived of a great part of their nervous influence, but not suffi- ciently oppressed immediately to put a stop to the action of the muscles of respiration, the above change necessarily takes place in the lungs ; and as they are of more immediate im- portance to life than any other organ whose function directly depends on the nervous system, this derangement of the lungs is here the cause of death. We see the patient to the last endeavouring to breathe through the phlegm which clogs them, and at length pro- duces suffocation. If such be the immediate cause of death in sanguineous apoplexy, we have reason to be- lieve, from experiments I which have been laid before the reader, that by passing a stream of galvanism through the lungs they may he enabled to perform their functions for a longer time than without this aid, and thus the life of the patient for a certain time preserved. There is an evident limit to this effect of gal- vanism. It is only while the sensibility con- * Exper. 44, 45. f Exper. 70, 71, 72, 73, T 274 tinues such as to induce the patient to expand his chest to a certain extent and with a certain ^frequency, that advantage can arise from it. Whatever be the supply of nervous influence in the lungs, if the air is not admitted with suffi- cient frequency, the proper changes, it is evi- dent, cannot go on. Galvanism, under these circumstances, must fail to relieve the breath- ing, having no other effect but that of a sti- mulus in promoting the sensorial functions *. On employing galvanism in apoplexy, I had the satisfaction to see the foregoing observa- tions confirmed. After the rattling breathing- had come on, aud the patient seemed about to be suffocated ; he was at least a dozen times made to breathe with ease, the accumulation of phlegm gradually disappearing on the appli- cation of galvanism, bv which his life was evi- dently prolonged. The inspirations, about an hour and a half or two hours before death, be- coming very imperfect, and less frequent, the galvanism failed to relieve him. The relief ob- tained, as may be supposed from what has been said, was always of very short duration, the breathing sometimes becoming oppressed as soon as the galvanism was discontinued. I directed it never to be applied for more than ten * See the observations on the office of the sensorial power in respiration, in Chap. 10, 275 minutes at a time, and no greater power to be employed than what I had found a person in health could bear without inconvenience. It appears, from the experiments which have been laid before the reader, that a long continued and powerful application of galvanism ex- cites inflammation. Its proper use in the case before us will appear from what I shall have occasion to say of asthma and suspended animation. It is evident, from the above observations, that the use of galvanism is not suggested as a means of cure in apoplexy; but it will always, I believe, in the species of this disease which we are considering, prolong the patient’s life ; and may thus, under certain circumstances, by giving more time for the use of those means which tend to remove the cause of the disease, be indirectly the means of saving it. Such are the observations which are sug- gested by the experiments which have been laid before the reader, respecting the action of the heart and the state of the breathing’ in sanguine- ous apoplexy. The character of this species of apoplexy seems evidently to arise from the power of the heart being independent of the brain, so that the action of the former seems to be no otherwise affected by the state of the latter, than necessarily arises from impeded t 2 276 respiration *. These observations, we shall find, by no means apply to all species of apoplexy. With regard to the other symptoms of san- guineous apoplexy, we have seeu it proved by direct experiment, that the loss of power in the limbs does not here arise from any change having taken place in their muscles, whose power seems equally unimpaired with the muscles of involuntary motion ; but from the nervous influence, the only stimulus of the former, being no longer applied to them. The urine and feces often pass involuntarily ; not that any change is produced in the sphincters of the bladder and rectum, but because these being muscles wholly of voluntary motion J, although they still retain that degree of con- traction which constitutes their state of rest, when the pressure from within increases, as all '* Seethe observations on respiration in Chap. 10. t See the observations after Exper. 32. | Observations, similar to those which have been made re- specting the muscles of inspiration, apply to the sphincters ; see Chap. 10. There is no such muscle, as far as I am capable of judging, as what physiologists call a mixed muscle, that is, one partaking of the nature both of the voluntary and involuntary muscles. All the muscles referred to this head are muscles of voluntary motion, but the nature of whose function is such that we are frequently obliged to call them into action. 277 stimulus supplied to them by the powers of volition is withdrawn, they yield to this pressure. The species of apoplexy which we have been considering, is the most favourable. By the abstraction of blood the brain is relieved from pressure, and its functions are restored, and continue, unless, as frequently happens, espe- cially where the patient has suffered from pre- vious attacks of the disease, the vessels again yield to the vis a tergo. We thus often see the symptoms relieved by blood-letting, but soon recur, and continue to do so till the powers of the constitution are exhausted. There are two species of apoplexy, proceed- ing from the same cause with the disease we are considering, but very different both in their nature and prognosis ; I mean those in which the distension of the vessels has occasioned rupture, or an effusion of serum. These cases, of a much more fatal tendency, are dis- tinguished from those of mere distension, with great difficulty. The only diagnostics on which it has appeared to me we can rely are, that in the two first cases, particularly in the first, the symptoms generally increase more rapidly than in apoplexy from mere distension, and are little, if at all, relieved by blood-letting*. That form of serous apoplexy, which is the effect of general debility, and takes place with little or 278 no congestion of the vessels of the brain, may, for the most part, be distinguished by the habit of the patient, and by the tendency to ef- fusion in other parts. To enter further on these cases, and the diagnosis between them and the different forms of hydrencephalus, would be foreign to my present purpose. I have enumerated them that the reader may the more clearly understand w hat I mean by ner- vous apoplexy, on which I shall soon have oc- casion to make some observations. It will be necessary here to say more of another affection of the head which insensibly runs into apoplexy from distension ; I mean phrenitis. In both we find the vessels of the brain preternatu rally distended, and in many cases can detect no other morbid appearance ; yet their nature must essentially differ. In the one, the patient often resembles a furious maniac, while insensibility is always the cha- racteristic of the other. This subject leads me to consider the most important of all the diseases of the sanguiferous system, perhaps I may say, of all the diseases to which we are liable. 279 CHAP. II. On Inflammation. I endeavoured many years ago to ascertain the state of the vessels in the various stages of inflammation, both in the warm and cold- blooded animal, by observing them with the assistance of the microscope. After stating briefly the points which appear to be ascer- tained by these experiments, a detailed account of which, I have already had occasion to ob- serve, is given in the Introduction to the se- cond part of my treatise on Febrile Diseases, I shall endeavour to ascertain from the result of experiments which have been laid before the reader in the preceding Inquiry, what share the nervous system has in producing the symptoms of this disease. In the first experiment on the vessels, the inflamed web of the foot of a frog was brought before a microscope ; and it was observed, that where the inflammation was greatest, the ves- sels were most distended, and the motion of the blood was slowest. The distension of the vessels, which in the healthy state admit only the colourless part of the blood, was apparent ; for a much greater number of vessels admitted the red particles in the inflamed than in the 280 sound part, and the interstices of the inflamed vessels appeared more opaque, either from the enlargement of innumerable small vessels, still too small to admit the grosser parts of the blood, or from an effusion of its more colour- less parts *. With a view to excite the vessels of the inflamed part, I wetted it with spirits, and directed on it the concentrated rays of the sun from the concave reflector of the micro- scope. In proportion as I succeeded by these means in increasing the velocity of the blood, the diameters of the vessels were diminished, their interstices became more transparent, and the appearance of inflammation was in the same proportion lessened. In the second experiment I observed the in- flammation from its commencement. The fins and tail of the lampern became inflamed by exposure to air. By bringing the former be- fore the microscope, I observed the circulation * Dr. Lubbock and Mr. Allen, without having made any experiments on the subject, and guided merely by the pheno- mena of the disease, maintained, about the year 1790, that in- flammation arises from a debility of the vessels ot the part. Some hints of this opinion are to be found in writings of an earlier date, but the above gentlemen, in the discussions of the Medical Society of Edinburgh, were the first who brought it forward in a connected form. Neither, as far as I know, has published any thing on the subject ; I cannot, therefore, say how far their sentiments, in the detail of the opinion, corre- spond with mine. 281 became more languid and the vessels enlarge as the inflammation came on. The motion of the blood in the most inflamed parts at length ceased altogether. By gentle friction and the application of distilled spirits, I repeatedly succeeded in accelerating the motion of the blood in the inflamed parts. In proportion as this happened, the vessels became paler, and the inflammation was evidently diminished. These experiments having been made on the cold-blooded animal, the mesentery of the rab- bit was chosen for the subject of the next ex- periment. The result was still the same. As soon as the inflammation began, the vessels began to enlarge, and the motion of the blood became languid ; these changes going on till in the most inflamed parts the vessels were en- larged to several times their original diameter, and the motion of the blood ceased altogether. I repeatedly occasioned debility of the capilla- ries of particular parts of the mesentery by irri- tating them, and thus saw inflammation rapidly excited by the vis a tergo distending the debili- tated vessels. It appears, from these experiments, that the state of the smaller vessels in an inflamed part is that of preternatural distension and de- bility. That of the larger vessels may be ascer- tained without the aid of the microscope. We 282 readily perceive, on viewing an inflamed mem- brane, that they do not suffer a similar dis- tension, and the increased pulsation of the arteries sufficiently evinces their increased action. In inflammatory affections of the jaw and the head, for example, a greatly increased action of the maxillary and temporal arteries is readily perceived by the finger. It is to be observed, however, that, although inflamma- tion, as was evident from the foregoing ex- periments, begins in the capillaries, if it con- tinues, the circulation in the smallest vessels becoming very languid, those immediately pre- ceding them in the course of circulation begin to be distended, and consequently debilitated. Thus when the lampern was first exposed to the air, the inflammation in the fins and tail assumed the appearance of a slight blush, in which it was difficult with the naked eye to discover any vessels ; but after some time had elapsed, vessels of a considerable size were seen passing through the inflamed parts. It is evident that this cannot go very far, because when the arteries preceding the capillaries have lost their power, the circulation is no longer in any degree supported in the latter, and gangrene soon ensues. The difference between what is called active and passive inflammation seems to depend on 283 the degree in which the arteries supplying the vis d ter go to the debilitated vessels are ex- cited. In short, inflammation seems to consist in the debility of the capillaries, followed by an increased action of the larger arteries ; and is terminated by resolution, when the capillaries are so far excited, and the larger arteries so far weakened, by the preternatural action of the latter, that the power of the capillaries is again in due proportion to the vis d ter go. Thus far, I cannot help thinking, the nature of inflammation appears sufficiently evident. The motion of the blood is retarded in the ca- pillaries in consequence of the debility induced on them; an unusual obstacle is thus opposed to its motion in the arteries preceding them in the course of circulation, which are thus ex- cited to increased action. Several difficulties, however, remain, on which the experiments just related throw no light. Why does a failure of power, of small extent in the capil- laries of a vital part, strongly excite not only the larger arteries of the part affected, but those of the whole system ; while a more extensive debility of the capillaries of an external part excites less increased action in the larger ar- teries of that part, and often none at all in those of the system in general ? Why does inflamma- tion often move suddenly from one part to 284 another, when we see no cause either increasing the action of the capillaries of the inflamed part or weakening those of the part now af- fected ? Why does inflammation often arise in parts only sympathetically affected, and conse- quently far removed from the offending cause ? Why is inflammation often as apt to spread to neighbouring parts, between which and the part first affected there is no direct communication of vessels, as to parts in continuation with that part ? These phenomena, it is evident, are refer- able to the agency of the nervous system, and seem readily explained by the experiments which prove that the effects of both stimuli and sedatives acting through this system are felt by the vessels, and that, independently of the in- tervention of any effect produced on the heart*. Thus the irritation of the nerves of the in- flamed part may excite the larger arteries of this part, or of distant parts, or of the whole san- guiferous system. It will, of course, be most apt to do so where the irritation excited by the inflammation is greatest, and consequently in - the more important vital parts. It cannot ap- pear surprising that inflammation should sud- denly cease in one part and attack another, when we know' that the nerves are capable of * Ex . 27, 28. 285 exciting to due action the capillaries of the one part, and in the other of impairing the vigour of those which have not yet suffered. In the same way we account for parts only sympathetically affected becoming inflamed, and for inflamma- tion readily spreading to neighbouring parts, which always sympathize, although there is no direct communication between them, either of vessels or nerves. From the foregoing view of inflammation the principles on which its treatment is founded are obvious. All the local means are calculated either to lessen the contents of the morbidly distended vessels, or to excite these vessels to expel them. The general means are regulated by the effects produced by the disease on the more distant vessels, through the medium of the nervous system ; the objects of this part of the treatment being neither to allow the action of these vessels to fall so low that it is incapable of supporting any degree of circulation in the de- bilitated vessels, nor to become so powerful as farther to distend by gorging them with blood. Thus, when the symptoms of active inflamma- tion run high, we lessen the vis tergo ; when gangrene is threatened, we increase it. When the inflammation is of great extent, or in a part of great importance, the whole sangui- ferous system appears, in consequence of the impression made on it through the nervous sys- 286 tem, to embrace its contents with greater force than usual, apparently for the purpose of sup- porting the circulation in the debilitated part. Hence appears to arise the hard pulse, from the degree of which we may generally judge of the degree of the inflammation. Mr. Hunter’s observations, in his work on in- flammation, as nearly correspond w ith the fore- going view of this disease, as the unassisted eye and the pre-conceived opinions, which he had, in common with the rest of the medical world, adopted, admit of. “ The vessels,” he observes, “ both arteries and veins, in the inflamed part, “ are enlarged, and the part becomes visibly “ more vascular, from which we should sus- “ pect that instead of an increased contraction, “ there was rather w hat w ould appear an in- “ creased relaxation of their muscular powers, “ being, as we might suppose, left to the elas- “ ticity entirely. This would be reducing them “ to a state of paralysis simply, but the power 14 of muscular contraction would seem to give “ way in inflammation, for they certainly dilate “ more in inflammation than the extent of the “ elastic pow er would allow' ; and it must also “ be supposed that the elaslic power of the ar- “ tery must be dilated in the same proportion.” Thus far the reader would suppose that Mr. H unter was detailing his observations for the purpose of supporting the doctrine which 1 have 287 endeavoured to establish. He proceeds, how- ever, with the ingenuity which characterizes all his opinions, to an attempt to reconcile the foregoing appearances with the common doc- trine of inflammation. “ The contents of the “ circulation being thrown out upon such oc- “ casions, would, from considering it in those lights, rather confirm us in that opinion ; and “ when we consider the whole of this as a ne- et cessary operation of nature, we must suppose “ it something more than simply a common re- “ laxation ; we must suppose it an action in “ the parts to produce an increase of size to answer particular purposes, and this I should “ call the action of dilatation, as we see the “ uterus increase in size in the time of uterine “ gestation, as well as the os tincae in the time “ of labour, the consequence of the preceding “ actions, and necessary for the completion of “ those which are to follow*.” The reader will perceive that all the facts recorded in the pre- ceding quotations are in favour of the opinion I have defended, the explanation alone being in opposition to it. A little before Mr. Hunter observes, “ as the “ vessels become larger and the part becomes “ more of the colour of the blood, it is to be * Mr. Hunter’s Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gunshot Wounds, p, 282 . 288 “ supposed there is more blood in the part ; and “ as the true inflammatory colour is scarlet, or “ that colour which the blood has when in the “ arteries, one would from hence conclude, “ either that the arteries were principally “ dilated, or at least, if the veins are equally “ distended, that the blood undergoes no “ change in such inflammation in its passage “ from the arteries into the veins, which I think “ most probably the case ; and this may arise “ from the quickness of its passage through “ those vessels . ” How different would have been Mr. Hunter’s inferences, if instead of trusting to the unassisted eye, he had viewed the inflamed vessels through the microscope. He could then have 'seen the blood moving, and would have found, that instead of its pas- sage being quickened in the inflamed vessels, it is uniformly rendered slower in proportion to the degree of the inflammation, and in the most inflamed parts, stands still altogether. I have, in the part of my Treatise on Fevers above referred to, shewn from several facts as- certained respecting the colour of the blood, that, within certain limits, the accumulation of this fluid in the debilitated vessels of the in- flamed part necessarily causes the blood to re- tain the florid colour. It is worth while to observe the difficulty which Mr. Hunter experiences in attempting to 289 explain, on his view of inflammation, the cause of the throbbing - pain of an inflamed part, which is evidently a necessary consequence of a debilitated and distended state of the smaller, and increased action of the larger vessels. — * “ This pain increases/’ he observes, “ every “ time the arteries are dilated, whence it would “ appear that the arteries do not contract by “ their muscular power in their systole, for if “ they did we might expect a considerable “ pain in that action, which would be at the “ full of the pulse. Whether this pain arises “ from the distension of the artery by the force “ of the heart, or whether it arises from the “ action of distension from the force of the ar- “ tery itself, is not easily determined; we know “ that diseased muscles give much pain in their “ contraction, perhaps more than they do when “ stretched*.” Dr. Parry, in his Elements of Pathology and Therapeutics, takes a view of the nature of inflammation, as far as 1 know, peculiar to himself. He makes the following observations on the opinion of inflammation, which I had endeavoured to support in the Treatise just re- ferred to. “ Neither will this conclusion be “ invalidated were it even proved, according “ to the opinion of Dr. Wilson, that the velo- * Page 287- U 290 “ city of the blood in the vessels of an in- “ flamed part is diminished, unless it be also “ proved that the velocity is diminished in a “ greater proportion than the quantity is in- “ creased*.” According to Dr. Parry’s view of the nature of inflammation, it consists in an in- creased momentum of the blood in an inflamed part. I should be happy to consider particu- larly every step of the ingenious, though, as it appears to me, fallacious, train of reasoning, by which he arrives at that conclusion. But as this would lead into a discussion of consider- able length, I shall confine myself to the state- ment of such facts as appear to be incompatible with it|. As Dr. Parry admits that there is a greater quantity of blood in the vessels of an inflamed part than in the same part w hen sound, he ad- mits that the vessels in inflammation are mor- bidly distended, the necessary inference from which is that their power is lessened. This in- ference did not escape Dr. Parry, but he main- tains, in the 198th paragraph, that the blood is moved in the capillary vessels not by the power of these vessels, but by the impulse it receives from the heart. * Vol. 1, p. 84. t Some of the observations which I am about to make were published in the sixth volume of the Medical Repo- sitory. 291 This opinion it is not difficult to submit to the test of direct experiment. We have seen it ascertained by the assistance of the microscope, both in warm and cold-blooded animals, that the motion of the blood in the smaller vessels continues for a long' time after what we call death, although immediately after it, a ligature be thrown round all the vessels attached to the heart*. Dr. Parry ascribes the continuance of the motion of the blood in the capillaries, in certain experiments of Haller, after the aorta had been secured by ligature and removed from the heart, to the contractile power of the larger arteries ; and he has, in a work published since that above referred to, entitled “ An Ex- perimental Inquiry into the Nature , Cause , and Varieties of the Arterial Pulse , SfcP made many interesting experiments for the pur- pose of ascertaining the degree of this power. That something must here be ascribed to it, cannot, I think, be denied ; but that the motion of the blood in the capillaries chiefly depends on their own powers, appears from the follow- ing facts, which I have ascertained by repeated experiments. When the power of the capillaries is destroy- ed, the vis ct ter go, even in the living animal, as the reader has seen in the experiments on * Exp. 24, 25, 75, u 2 292 the state of inflamed vessels, and in those in which solutions of opium and tobacco were injected under the skin*, is riot capable of pro- pelling - the blood through them. He has also seen, that stimulating the debilitated vessels increases the velocity of the blood in themf. As the motion of the blood in the smaller ves- sels begins to fail, where there is no inflamma- tion, either in the living or in the dead animal, it is observed to stop and go on, to move back- wards and forwards in the same vessel, and to stop in some vessels of the same part sooner than in others ; phenomena which, it is evident, could not arise from the contractile power of the larger arteries. Besides, it appears from Exp. 62 and 63, that after the power both of the heart and large vessels is lost, the motion of the blood in the capillaries still continues. I need not say how inconsistent this result is with the above opinion of Dr. Parry and other physiologists, that the circulation is sup- ported by the power of the heart alone, fs not the nature of the circulation in the liver sufficient to refute this opinion ? I have laid before the reader many experi- ments of a different nature, the results of w hich appear to be wholly incompatible with the opi- * See page- 133. t See the above experiments on inflamed vessels. 293 nions of this author ; and which, had there been no other experiments on the subject, would, as far as ! am capable of judging, prove that the motion of the blood in the capillaries neither depends on the impetus given to it by the heart, nor on the contractility of the larger vessels 1 wish the more to insist on this sub- ject, because the authority of Dr. Parry has, with many, given a currency to bis opinions. Can all contractility of the larger arteries, the greater part of which, according to Dr. Parry’s experiments, consists in the mere property of elasticity, be destroyed by crushing the brain or spinal marrow ? We find, from experiments 29 and 30, that the immediate effects of crush- ing either, is that of instantly destroying the circulation in the capillaries. In these experi- ments, it is true, no ligature was thrown round the vessels attached to the heart, but the result could not arise from loss of power in that organ, because the total removal of it, either in the warm or cold-blooded animal, produces no such effect. (Exp. 24, 62, 63.) It is an effect altogether analogous to what takes place in the heart itself, from the same cause. (Exp. 20, 21.) When tobacco was applied to the brain the motion of the blood in the capillaries was lessened and soon ceased. (Exp. 26, 27.) Can we ascribe this to the diminished action of the heart ? Its total removal, we have just seen. 294 produces no such effect. Nobody will main- tain that it is to be ascribed to the tobacco, ap- plied to the brain, destroying all contractility in the larger arteries. Is it possible, from these experiments, to make any other inference than that the capillaries possess a power simi- lar to that of the heart, which is influenced by affections of the nervous system in the same way *. The motion of the blood in the capillaries, after visible death, seems so far from depend- ing on the elasticity of the larger arteries, that, as far as I am capable of judging, the emptiness of these arteries after death, may be shewn to arise from the continued action of the former set of vessels. Dr. Parry found that the larger arteries have their diameter lessened after death, but that it again enlarges, though not to the same extent. I should be inclined to explain these pheno- mena, if, indeed, they at all obtain in a sen- sible degree, except when the artery is exposed to the influence of the air, in a way different from that proposed by Dr. Parry. We must suppose, I think, from the facts just mentioned, that the action of the capillaries combines w ith the contractile power of the larger arteries, in lessening the contents of the latter. As long See Part II. Chap. XII. paragraph 46. 295 as these contents are of sufficient bulk to stimu- late the vessel it will closely embrace them, and thus as its contents are lessened, contract be- yond the effect of its elasticity ; but by the con- tinued action of the capillaries, the bulk of these contents at length becoming too small to stimulate the vessel, it will be relaxed, and thus, by its elastic power, regain a larger diameter. I have already had occasion to make some ob- servations on this subject*, and to remark how readily the action of the capillaries, after that of the heart has ceased, may lessen the contents of the larger vessels, the sum of the areas of the branches of vessels always exceeding the area of the trunk. That the emptiness of the arte- ries after death, for they are sometimes found quite empty, does not arise from their con- tractile power, as Dr. Parry supposes, appears even from his own very accurate experiments. They do not teach us that the contraction of the arteries after death is sufficient to obliterate their cavities, and no less degree of it, it is evident, can wholly expel their contents. With respect to some other inferences which Dr. Parry makes from his experiments, 1 think he would admit, that we may be deceived respect- ing the usual action of the arteries, by dividing and making other experiments on them, while *- Part II. Chap. X. 296 exposed to the air, which applies a peculiarly strong stimulus to parts not usually subjected to its action. If the abdomen of a warm- blooded animal be opened soon after death, although the usual effect is an increase ot the peristaltic motion in those parts of the intes- tines which are exposed to the air, sometimes they fall into a state of permanent contraction, and in this state remain motionless. May not such a permanent contraction, existing in so small a degree as to escape observation, be the cause of Dr. Parry’s not having observed any alternate contraction and dilatation in the ex- posed arteries ? Arteries are often very evi- dently lessened in diameter, and sometimes thrown into strong partial contractions by exposure to tiie air*. It must, however, be ad- mitted, I think, that the pulse is chiefly f caused * See Dr. Parry’s 13th, 24th, and 26th Experiments, and the account of an experiment of Vershuir in Dr. Fowler’s Thesis on Inflammation. I have frequently observed a general lessening of an artery on its exposure to the air. f The word chiefly, as here used, seems to require some explanation. All admit that the arteries are elastic tubes, and it will not be denied that the larger arteries are exposed to a more powerful distending force during the systole than during the diastole of the heart. It necessarily follows, therefore, that these arteries are more distended during the former than during the latter, even on the supposition that the increased stimulus of distension excites no vital action in them. Whether the in- creased distension is in such a degree as to be sensible is another 297 in the way Dr. Parry has so well explained. The beatings of the arteries of rabbits, observed in my experiments, were probably of the same nature with the motion of the arteries corre- sponding to the contractions of the ventricle observed by Dr. Parry. This motion of arte- ries may often be seen in the human body, in the wrists, the temples, and the neck, while the skin is entire. When we consider attentively the results of the various experiments to which I have re- ferred, does it not seem a necessary inference that the blood is moved in the capillaries bv the power of these vessels themselves ; and, consequently, that if they are debilitated, the momentum of the whole blood in the part, as well as its velocity must be less than in health ? The truth of this inference appears, indeed, from direct experiments ; for from those made with a view to ascertain the state of the vessels question. The experiments of Dr. Parry prove that it is not sensible to the eye when the artery is exposed. That it is sen- sible to the touch appears, I think, from the circumstance, that when the circulation is vigorous the pulse is sensible to pressure too slight to influence the caliber of the artery. It is sensible to the slightest touch. But that the sensation produced in the linger in feeling the pulse, is excited chiefly in the way Dr. Parry has explained, appears from its increasing with the pressure until the latter becomes such, as nearly to obliterate the cavity of the artery. 298 V in an inflamed part, of which an account has been given, it clearly appears not only that the velocity of every part of* the blood was lessen- ed, (which Dr. Parry admits may be the case, supposing the lessened momentum, arising from this cause, more than compensated by the increased quantity of blood,) but that the ge- neral momentum of the blood also in the in- flamed part was lessened ; because the blood was observed to move more and more slowly, till in the most inflamed parts it ceased to move altogether. Now before the momentum of the blood in those parts was wholly lost, it must have passed through all the degrees between the healthy momentum and none ; during which the part exhibited the phenomena of in- flammation. In the introduction, above referred to, I have pointed out in detail, that the view of inflam- mation there taken is supported by the various phenomena of that disease. We may easily, I think, from what has been said, perceive the steps by which inflammation terminates in resolution and in gangrene. In the one case, the debilitated capillaries are ex- cited to due action by the increased action of the larger arteries ; in the other, the increased stimulus failing to produce this effect, the ca- pillaries wholly lose their power, and the part 299 becomes subject to the laws of dead mat er. The process of suppuration is more compli- cated, and between the inferences from the ex- periments which have been related respecting the state of the vessels in an inflamed part, and those afforded by the experiments of Sir Everard Home # on the formation of pus, related in his valuable Treatise on this fluid, there is a chasm which must be filled up by future observation. It appears from what has been said, compared with the experiments of Sir Everard Home, that when the capillary vessels of a part remain for a certain length of time in a state of debility and distension, it often begins to secrete a fluid which becomes pus ; for Sir Everard has shewn that this fluid has not the purulent appearance when first secreted, but acquires it while it re- mains on the inflamed surface, and does not acquire it the less readily when removed from that surface in a colourless state, provided its proper temperature be preserved, and it is equally exposed to the influence of the air, which promotes the change. He has, in the above publication, thrown great light on the Pathology of some of the most important in- ternal diseases, by showing how readily pus is * A Treatise on the properties of Pus, by Everard Home, Esq. 4to. London, 1788. This Treatise was re-published in 1797, in his work on Ulcers. 300 formed by secreting surfaces independently of any breach of substance. He found it com- pletely formed by causes of irritation applied to such surfaces in the short space of five hours. Whether this fluid is secreted from the contents of the original vessels, or, as Mr. Hunter sup- poses, of a new set of vessels formed in the diseased part, we cannot tell. We are also un- acquainted with the nature of the process by which the diseased parts are removed in the formation of abscess. We know not whether it be by an increased action of the absorbents of the part, or by the action of vessels formed for the purpose. We cannot sup] »ose that the dis- eased parts are melted down and assimilated into its own nature by the action of pus, an opinion at one time prevalent, since we find that this fluid with all its properties may be formed by inflamed surfaces, without any loss of substance taking place ; and it more directly appears, from the experiments of Sir Everard Home, that pus does not pos- sess the property of eroding the solids. These topics open a fruitful and interesting field of inquiry. By patient observation, and the aid of glasses, it is not improbable, in the present improved state of chemistry, that the whole process of suppuration might be un- folded. 301 When the larger vessels of a part are debili- tated and consequently distended without pre- vious distension of the capillaries; the disease, which may be termed congestion or partial plethora, is of a nature very different from in- flammation. In this case there is little or no distension of the capillaries, as appears from their being pale or only slightly turgid w ith red blood. The vis a ter go, from the debilitated state of the larger vessels, being too weak greatly to distend them, they more or less per- fectly retain their power, and as long as the larger vessels can afford any supply of blood, preserve the circulation. We have just seen that they can support the motion of the blood, both in the warm and cold-blooded animal, long after the effect of the powers of the larger vessels has ceased. Such appears to be the state of the vessels of the brain in san- guineous apoplexy, while in phrenitis the larger vessels are comparatively little distended, the distension being chiefly in the capillaries. This difference is evident on dissection. After the latter disease, when it has been distinctly formed, a general blush is observed in the parts of the brain affected ; while, after the former, a preternatural distension of the larger vessels is conspicuous, while the brain itself is often nearly or altogether of the natural colour. It is an observation of w riters on phrenitis, that if 302 coma supervene on delirium in this disease, it is almost always fatal. The cause of which is evident from what has been said. If, while the capillaries are debilitated, the larger vessels to a considerable degree also lose their power, the circulation in the former must w'holly fail. In other parts, as well as in the brain, we constantly observe, that the distension of the capillaries is attended with acute symptoms, great pain and fever, while that of the larger vessels is generally attended with little of either, being chiefly denoted by a failure in the func- tion of the part affected. The cause of this difference appears from those experiments which prove that the sanguiferous and nervous systems sympathize in their extreme parts in a way they are not found to do in any other* ; which we have reason to believe arises from the capillaries supplying to the nervous influ- ence the fluids on which it operates in the func- tion of secretion •j*, the failure of which must necessarily occasion a degree of derangement in the nervous system, which cannot arise to the same degree from causes chiefly affecting the larger vessels ; for however debilitated these vessels may be, unless the circulation in them fail altogether, in which case the death of the t Chap. 5 . * Exp. 44, 45. 303 part soon ensues, the capillaries, as appears from what has just been said, are still capable of affording a certain supply of fluids to the secreting power. It has long been observed by physicians, that the inflammation of the same organ sometimes excites acute pain and a great degree of fever, and in olher cases comparatively little of these symptoms, being chiefly remarkable by the lesion of function it occasions. Thus inflam- mation of the brain has been divided into two species — phrenitis and phrenismus ; the latter differing in no essential respect from sanguine- ous apoplex}^- — that of the lungs into pleurisy and peripneumony, &c. The difference of the symptoms in such cases has been explained by the supposition that, in the acute cases, the membrane is affected, and in those less acute the paranchyma. Numerous dissections have now proved the fallacy of this explanation. The paranchyma alone having often been found affected in the most acute, and the membranes alone in the least acute cases*. I believe it * If the reader will consult the 20th Epistle of Morgagni De Sedibus et Causis Morborum, particularly the gth, 33d, 35th, 39th, 41st, 43d, 4/th, 49th and 62d sections of it, and some parts of his 21st Epistle, he will find that the symptoms regarded as peculiar to pleurisy have frequently attended the. paranchymatous inflammation of the lungs, and that when the pleura was not at all affected. When we inspect the bodies of 304 will often appear that in the former the capil- laries, in the latter the larger vessels, are the chief seat of the disease. I am aware that this those who die of inflammation of the lungs (says Schroeder Opusc. Med.) they alone are sometimes found inflamed, although the symptoms of pleurisy had been well marked Petrus Servius opened three hundred people at Rome, who died with the symptoms of pleurisy, in which the lungs were greatly inflamed, the pleura little or not at all. Tissot met w ith similar cases ; and Diemerbroech says, that in two or three cases, in which there had been no acute pain, and where con- sequently, according to the common opinion, the paranchyma of the lungs alone should have been found affected, the pleura equally partook of the disease. Burserius, observes, that dis- sections are not wanting to prove that inflammation of the pleura has been present without any pain. Sydenham seems to go so far as to believe the paranchyma of the lungs to be very fre- quently the seat of pleurisy. And Juncker, in his Conspectus Pathologist, observes that pleurisy often passes into peripneu- mony, by which we may understand that the paranchyma was found inflamed where the symptoms had been those of pleurisy ; for such was the prejudice in favour of this division of pneu- monia, that when it was found that the appearances on dis- section did not correspond with it, it has been supposed that the one form of the disease had passed into the other, an opinion which seems to have been sanctioned even by Haller. Yet we find in some of the oldest writers more correct observa- tions. Hippocrates speaks of pleurisy and peripneumony as affections of nearly, if not altogether, the same parts ; and Galen observes that the pain in peripneumony is sometimes acute. Many observations to the same effect might be added from authors of equal authority, both w ith respect to the dis- ease we are speaking of, and inflammatory affections of other organs. 305 will not always be found to be the case, for the capillaries sometimes suffer distension with little or no pain, particularly where the pro- gress of the disease is slow. In general, how- ever, in proportion as the distension is confined to the larger vessels there is less fever and Ies3 pain, and when they alone are affected there is little or none of either. All local diseases producing fever, seem to consist in debility of the capillary vessels of the part affected. Dr. Cullen arranges them all under three heads, Inflammation, Hemorrhagy, and Profluvium. If we examine the symptoms of the two last we shall find, that except these diseases are of a mere passive nature, arising from external violence or extreme relaxation, in which cases they do not excite fever, their symptoms are those of inflammation relieved by discharges, in the one case, the effect of rupture of the vessels, in the other, apparently of distension of their extremities ; and it is par- ticularly to be remarked, that it is only in pro- portion as the symptoms of inflammation pre- vail, that those of fever attend. It seems then from direct experiment to be a law of the ani- mal economy, that debility and consequent distension of the capillary vessels, and this alone of all local affections, applies to the ner- vous system, such an irritation as excites to x 306 preternatural action the larger vessels of the part, and when of great extent or in vital parts, the whole sanguiferous system. Do these observations throw any light on the nature of fever properly so called? In this dis- ease we find a general debility of the capillaries followed by an increased action of the heart and larger vessels, its symptoms subsiding as soon as the capillaries are excited to the due perform- ance of their functions. In such a state of the sanguiferous system, it is evident, that debili- tating causes, acting partially, will readily in- crease the debility of the capillaries affected by them ; and thus, as appears from what has been said, excite inflammation, which will either run its usual course or be relieved by hemorrhagy or profluvium. May we not thus account for the frequency of these affections in fever ? In this disease inflammation is particularly apt to arise in the brain, because the blood being returned thence, by membraneous canals, which cannot partake of the increased excite- ment of the central parts of the sanguiferous system *, this excitement necessarily tends to * The final cause of this structure appears to be to supply a greater temporary vigour on various occasions where the ra- pidity of the circulation is increased, particularly where great efforts are made, and consequently great excitement required in the muscles of voluntary motion ; all organs being, within certain limits, more or less vigorous according to the quantity of blood circulating in them. 307 occasion accumulation of blood there. Inflam- mation is also apt to occur in fever in those parts where the vessels are most numerous and delicate, and where they are exposed to any species of injury ; that is, where they are most apt to be debilitated. According- to this view of the subject fever must be regarded as a state of general inflam- mation, the symptoms peculiar to inflammation not appearing in any great degree, only be- cause the increased vis a tergo, being so much smaller in proportion to the number of, and consequently the resistance opposed by, the de- bilitated vessels, than in inflammation where the vessels of only one part are debilitated, it cannot greatly distend them ; and conse- quently, excite the more prominent symptoms of inflammation, unless they become particu- larly debilitated in some one part : but it often excites all these symptoms in a less degree, increase of heat, redness and fullness of the various surfaces. I may observe also, that in proportion as these symptoms appear the pulse becomes hard as in inflammation, and the huffy coat shews itself on the blood. Are not all the other symptoms of fever equally the conse- quences of this state of the circulation, the symptoms of excitement arising from the ge- neral effort of the sanguiferous system to ex- cite the capillaries ; those of debility from the x 2 308 state of the latter vessels, and the consequences of the ineffectual or but partially successful efforts to restore their due action ? It is evident from what has been said, that the nervous is equally with the sanguiferous system engaged in these efforts. In what may be called the local treatment of fever we find, that causes exciting the capilla- ries of any considerable part with which others sympathize, the sudden application of cold to the surface, the effect of cathartics in the alimentary canal, &c., tend to relieve this disease. With respect to the general treatment, as the whole of the capillaries are debilitated, and the increased vis d tergo consequently bears a less proportion to the resisting force than in inflam- mation, it requires less reduction ; but as even here it is apt to exceed the limits most favour- able to the excitement of the capillaries, it must generally be reduced ; and in proportion as we reduce it, we find, analogous to what happens in an inflamed part, that the redness, heat, and fulness of the various surfaces are relieved. It is equally necessary, however, both in fever and inflammation, to be careful that we do not so far reduce the vis d tergo that it can no longer support any degree of circulation in the debilitated capillaries ; in which case we should have general sphacelus in simple fever, as we 309 have local sphacelus in inflammation, were it possible that any of the functions of life could go on after all the capillaries had lost their power. In extreme cases of typhus we see a state approaching to this. If the foregoing observations be correct, the treatment of fever is founded on the same prin- ciples with that of inflammation, the only dif- ference being, that the local means are more extensively applied, in proportion as the local affection is more extensive, and as the resisting power is greater in fever than in inflammation, less vigorous means of reducing the vis d tergo are proper in the early stage of this disease, and in the latter stage, the means which support it are more frequently called for. The attention o£ Mr. Knight, whose disco- veries in the vegetable world have placed him in the first rank of philosophers, has been pe- culiarly attracted by the galvanic experiments which have been laid before the reader ; and the strong analogy which subsists between ani- mal and vegetable life, has induced him to re- flect much on their results. He has favoured me with many ingenious suggestions relating chiefly to vegetable life, which will be sub- mitted to the test of experiment. One relating to the subject before us, 1 cannot avoid men- tioning, although I have not yet had an oppor- tunity of attempting to profit by it. I mean the 310 use of galvanism in the worst cases of typhus, in which there is an universal failure of tiie secret- ing power and the debility of the nervous system forms so prominent a feature. It may certainly he used with safet}% and probably with advan- tage in this disease. The circumstance which appears to me to render it doubtful how far it may prove useful in typhus is, that here the due supply of fluids, as well as of nervous in- fluence, fails. In restoring the former, galva- nism can have no effect different from that of other stimuli. The proper mode of using it, I conceive to be, by many wires from one end of the trough applied to various parts of the head and spine, and many from the other end applied to such parts of the surface as shall send the influence through the body as much as possible in the direction of the nerves. Many of the observations which I shall have occasion to make on the use of galvanism in asthma, and which have been confirmed by re- peated trials, will probably be found applicable to this and other cases in which it may be employed. Having taken a cursory view of the nature of the diseases which arise from morbid distension, and consequent failure of circulation in the capillaries and larger vessels of the brain, w e are now to consider the effects of a deranged 311 state of this organ itself, and how far the ex- periments, which have been laid before the reader, throw light on the symptoms arising from this cause. CHAP. III. On Nervous Apoplexy. A diagnostic between sanguineous and nervous apoplexy, and the proper treatment of the latter, are still among the desiderata of medicine. The objects of the following observations are, to trace, as far as I can, with the aid of the experiments which have been laid before the reader, the distinguish- ing* symptoms of nervous apoplexy ; to ascer- tain the circumstances which render the di- agnostic between this disease and sanguine- ous apoplexy so difficult, a difficulty much to be lamented, as there is no instance in which a diagnostic is more necessary, these diseases often proving quickly fatal, and re- quiring very different treatment ; and lastly, to point out the principles on which the treatment of nervous apoplexy seems to be founded. In considering the former parts of the subject, I shall, in the first place, point out what ap- pears, from the principles which seem to be 312 established by the experiments related in the preceding Inquiry, to be the necessary conse- quences of great injury of the brain; and then compare these consequences with the symptoms which actually attend diseased states of this organ in the human body. As it appears, as far as I am capable of judging, from what has been said, that the leading features of sanguineous apoplexy de- pend on the fact, that the power of the heart and blood-vessels is independent of the nervous system, in consequence of which the power of the brain may be overwhelmed by a compressing force without directly affecting the powers of circulation * ; so I think it will appear from what I am about to say, that the leading features of nervous apoplexy depend on the fact, that the power of the heart and blood-vessels, though independent of the nervous system, may be influenced even to its total destruction through this system f- Let us consider the consequence of such an impression made on the nervous system as greatly lessens the power of the heart and blood-vessels. We have seen that agents acting on the brain and spinal maiTow increase the * Exp. 18. + Compare the Experiments related in Chap. I. of Part II., with Exp. 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 29, 30. 313 action of the heart and blood-vessels, unless they are of a sedative quality, or applied in excess, that is, in such a degree as suddenly to injure the mechanism of the brain and spinal marrow, they then directly impair the powers of circulation # . If the mechanism of the brain be suddenly destroyed, instant death of all the functions ensues j\ The cause applied, how- ever, is rarely sufficient to produce this effect. It generally debilitates without destroying the various functions; the sensibility is impaired ; the heart acts more frequently and feebly, and for the most part, irregularly ; and the cir- culating system suffers a similar loss of power in every part of the body. The sphincters of the rectum and bladder do not merely cease to be excited by any voluntary effort as in sanguine- ous apoplexy, but have the power, on which the degree of contraction constituting their state of rest depends, more or less impaired. This state is succeeded by some improvement in the symptoms, the heart and blood-vessels in some degree recover from the shock they received +. The former begins to beat with less frequency and with more force and regularity, and the latter to convey the blood with greater velocity * See the Experiments related in the second Chapter of Part II. t Exp. 20, 21. t Exp. 19, 29- 314 and in a more uniform stream*. In propor- tion as this change takes place the various func- tions, as I have very frequently observed in rabbits, improve, the animal recovering a greater degree of sensibility. If the offending cause has been comparatively slight, the symp- toms continue to improve ; if severe, the heart soon begins again to beat more languidly, and with it all the functions gradually fail. If the in- jury done to the nervous system is of such a nature as particularly to debilitate the vessels of the injured part, during that interval, in which the vigour of the circulation is in some degree restored, the vessels of this part must yield to the vis a iergo, and the symptoms of inflamma- tion are thus added to those arising from the original injury. Such appears from the result of the experi- ments detailed in the preceding Inquiry, to be the consequences of such an injury of the brain and spinal marrow as materially deranges their mechanism. The reader will perceive that if the foregoing view of the subject be correct, the nervous is a much more complicated disease than the sanguineous apoplexy. In the latter, the powers of the nervous system are impaired, but those of the sanguiferous system are, in the commencement of the disease, entire, * Exp. 19, Q9 315 and only become affected through the failu r e of the functions of respiration and secretion. In nervous apoplexy, not only the powers of cir- culation suffer directly from the inj ury done to the nervous system, thus producing a combi- nation of diseased states of both systems, but the debility of the heart and blood-vessels have a secondary effect on the nervous system. The action of the brain and spinal marrow fail from defective circulation, and a state of the^e organs, analogous to that which takes place in syncope, is superadded to that produced bv the cause of the disease. It is not surprising, therefore, that this species of apoplexy some- times proves instantly fatal ; which sanguineous apoplexy, affecting the powers of circulation, only through the failure of other functions, cannot do, except it exists in such a degree as to produce instantaneous and total insensibility, which seldom if ever happens. The principles of the treatment in the former case also, are much more complicated. In san- guineous apoplexy, we have but one object in view, to relieve the brain from pressure. In nervous apoplexy, while we endeavour to coun- teract the effects of the offending' cause on the brain, it is necessary to support the circula- tion ; the failure of which, to a certain degree, must immediately prove fatal. This ought to be done, however, in such a way as tends least 316 to occasion morbid distension of the vessels of the head, to which the cause of the disease often renders them liable ; and which will produce either sanguineous apoplexy or phre- nitis, according as the distension takes place in the larger or smaller vessels. From this view of the subject we may readily understand why abstraction of blood often proves fatal in ner- vous apoplexy, and yet much stimulus cannot he borne. The simplest cases of nervous apoplexy, and those most nearly approaching to the state of the animals in the above experiments, are cases from mechanical injury of the brain. When a blow on the head fractures the skull, and occa- sions part of the bone to press on the brain without doing further injury to this organ, the case resembles in its nature the sanguineous apoplexy. When the compressing power is removed the apoplectic symptoms disappear ; but when the blow has produced what surgeons call concussion of the brain, the case is only a slighter degree of the state in which the rabbits and frogs were found after the brain had been crushed. No writer, perhaps, has detailed the symp- toms of concussion of the brain with greater correctness than Mr. Abernethy, in the third part of his Surgical and Physiological Essays. It is impossible not to remark how accurately 317 his account of these symptoms corresponds with the results of the experiments which have been laid before the reader: — “ The whole train of “ symptoms/’ he observes,' “ following a con- “ cussion of the brain, may, I think, be pro- “ perly divided into three stages. The first is, “ that state of insensibility and derangement of “ the bodily powers which immediately succeed “ the accident. While it lasts the patient “ scarcely feels any injury that may be inflicted “ on him ; his breathing is difficult, but in ge- “ neral without stertor, his pulse intermitting “ and his extremities cold. But such a state “ cannot last long ; it goes off gradually, and is “ succeeded by another, which I consider as “ the second stage of concussion. In this, the “ pulse and respiration become better, and, “ though not regularly performed, are suffi- “ cient to maintain life, and to diffuse warmth “ over the extreme parts of the body. The “ feeling of the patient is now so far restored “ that he is sensible if his skin is pricked, but “ he lies stupid and inattentive to slight exter- “ nal impressions. As the effects of concus- “ sion diminish, he becomes capable of reply- “ ing to questions put to him in a loud tone “ of voice, especially when they refer to his “ chief suffering at the time, as pain in the “ head, &c. ; otherwise he answers incohe- “ rently, and as if his attention was occupied 318 “ by something else. As long as the stupor “ remains, the inflammation of the brain seems “ to be moderate, but as the former abates the “ latter seldom fails to increase ; and this con- “ stitutes the third stage, which is the most “ important of the series of effects proceeding “ from concussion. These several stages vary “ considerably in their degree and duration, “ but more or less of each will be found to take “ place in every instance where the brain has “ been violently shaken.” Page 59, GO. In the 67th page Mr. Abernethy observes — “ It has “ hitherto been considered as a desirable object “ to point out any marks by which we might “ distinguish between compression and con- “ cession of the brain, but I believe no such “ criteria have yet been communicated to the “ public. I think, however, that these dis- “ eases may be distinguished. As far as my “ observation goes, the insensibility is much “ less in concussion, especially after a short “ time has elapsed. Patients, in this case', “ though they seem reluctant to answer ques- “ tions, yet complain much if their heads are “ moved, and in those instances where it was “ judged necessary to inspect the bone, I have “ generally found that they made great com- “ plaint during the operation. The pupils also “ are usually more contracted than in com- “ pression of the brain, the muscles of the 319 6 ‘ limbs retain their natural state of tone, and “ respiration is performed with little or no “ stertor, though the pulse generally intermits “ in a very considerable degree. In the “ slighter cases of concussion the sickness of “ the patient is often very great. But in cases “ of compression of the brain circumstances “ very much the reverse of those just related “ take place. The sensibility is much dimi- ‘‘ nished in proportion to the degree of the in- “ jury. From this cause also the pupils are “ dilated and the limbs relaxed. The respi- “ ration is attended with stertor, and the “ pulse, as far as my observation extends, is “ subject to much less intermission.” It is evident that in accidents we cannot always expect to find the symptoms of compression and concussion so distinct as in experiments made for the purpose of exhibiting those symp- toms ; many accidents tending at the same time to produce a greater or less degree of both af- fections. The chief difference between the symptoms of concussion and nervous apoplexy arising from internal causes, is, that in the latter there is not so uniform a tendency to inflamma- tion ; which, in the cases referred to by Mr. Abernethy, is evidently the effect of the injury done to the vessels by the blow, which we have reason to believe causes them to suffer morbid 320 distension as soon as a certain vigour of circu- lation is restored. It is this renewed vigour of circulation after the immediate effect of the blow has subsided, so remarkable in the expe- riments just referred to, that again gives some energy to the brain, and explains Mr. Aber- nethy^s observation, that the stupor abates as the tendency to inflammation comes on. In nervous apoplexy, from internal causes, the sensibility is often as much impaired as in the sanguineous apoplexy. When this is the case the danger is very urgent; but it fre- quently is much less so, compared with the se- verity of the other symptoms and the degree of danger ; because here the sanguiferous, as well as the nervous system, suffers. In the former case, the derangement of function being con- fined to the nervous system, the danger is nearly proportioned to the degree of insensibi- lity ; but in the case before us, symptoms of the greatest danger often occur, although the pa- tient is not wholly insensible, and not unfre- quently while he is affected with a degree of irritability. The state of the pulse affords the the best diagnostic between these species of apoplexy. In the sanguineous, we have seen, it is strong, regular, and generally less fre- quent than natural ; in the nervous, it is weak, frequent, irregular, and sometimes fluttering. Such are the diagnostics of distinctly formed 321 ■> , sanguineous and nervous apoplexy. Were these diseases always so formed, no attentive practi- tioner could be at a loss to distinguish them. But we have to lament that this is by no means the case, as indeed from what has been said we might cl priori have supposed. For it must often happen in apoplexy, from distension of the vessels, that the brain will sustain some farther injury than that of mere uniform com- pression. It is not improbable that the circum- stance of the compressing force, acting partially, may sometimes alone be sufficient to produce this effect; and powerful causes, injuring the mechanism of the brain, must often be of such a nature as at the same time to occasion debi- lity, and consequently more or less distension of its vessels. To these circumstances, and to the difficulty of distinguishing apoplexy arising from mere distension of the vessels, from that arising from an extravasation of blood or serum, it appears to me that all the difficulties of the prognosis and diagnosis of the different species of this disease are to be ascribed. It is the tendency to distension of the vessels of the encephalon that renders a very stimulat- ing plan of treatment a doubtful practice, even in the most decided cases of nervous apoplexy. Were it not for this, the state of the sanguife- y 322 rous and nervous systems in these cases would equally call for such a plan. But it would seem that the more debilitated the brain is, the more readily it feels the effects of any morbid disten- sion of its vessels. Thus our practice in such cases is confined on all hands. Irreparable in- jury may be done by the free use either of sti- muli or evacuants. The mode of treatment which has appeared to me the most successful, is a gently stimulating plan, combined for the purpose of preventing congestion of the head, with medicines moderately determining to the surface, and keeping the bowels free without occasioning a great discharge from them ; with occasional abstractions of blood from the head, when the insensibility seems inclined to in- crease. It appears from what has been said, that the increase of this symptom is the best indication of the vessels of the head becoming more distended. Profuse sweating not reliev- ing the symptoms, which is a frequent occur- rence in severe cases of nervous apoplexy, seems always to indicate great danger, and to arise from a general relaxation of the extreme vessels. In casesarising from injuries of the head, Mr. Abernethy thinks the great tendency to inflam- mation altogether forbids the stimulating plan. I have already pointed out the circumstance which often makes the indications of cure in 323 this respect different in concussion of the brain and nervous apoplexy arising from interna] causes. The foregoing' view of the nature of the dif- ferent species of apoplexy, not the result of pre- conceived opinions, but of facts open to the examination of every one who choses to repeat the experiments, and so strikingly confirmed by the observations of Mr. Abernethy and other writers on the effects of injuries of the brain, may tend, perhaps, to render the practice in this varied disease more determinate. It seems, by affording a more correct view of the ratio symptomatum of the sanguineous and nervous apoplexy, than could have been obtained with- out a knowledge of the relation which subsists between the sanguiferous and nervous systems, to point out with more precision than has yet been done, the symptoms essential to each, and consequently the modes of practice suited to the various cases in which they occur separately, or are blended together. I have entered no farther on these modes of practice than was ne- cessary to point out the genera] principles on which they seem to be founded. Inflammation of considerable extent, or of a vital part, we have seen, excites increased ac- tion of the sanguiferous system The reader w ill more readily understand here, than he would y 2 324 have done in the Chapter on Inflammation, why in certain phlegmasise the action of this system, instead of being increased, is debili- tated. I have just had occasion to observe, that distension of the vessels of the brain seems often, merely from the partial action of the distend- ing power, so to injure this organ as to give rise to the symptoms of nervous apoplexy. A si- milar injury of the brain we might d priori sup- pose, must sometimes happen in that species of the distension of the vessels of the encephalon, which produces phrenitis ; so that although in this disease the pulse is often strong, and the heat great, as in most other phlegmasiae, it some- times happens that the heat is but little in- creased, and the pulse small, frequent, and fluttering, the danger, for reasons just pointed out in speaking of the nature of nervous apo- plexy, being very great. A similar state of the circulation is observed in other inflammations, which occasion very great nervous irritation. Thus in inflammation of the stomach and bowels, the heat is often little increased, and the pulse is feeble ; the brain and spinal mar- row being so injured as to weaken the action of the heart and blood-vessels, and thus cause a greater or less degree of syncope to be com- bined w ith the original disease. I have seen the powers of circulation so enfeebled by violent inflammation of the alimentary canal, that 325 within twelve hours after the attack it was im- possible to obtain four ounces of blood, al- though large veins in both arms and both legs, and one of the temporal arteries, w ere opened ; no blood having been taken previously, and the patient, at the time of the attack, having been strong and in good health. He died in about twenty hours after the commencement of his disease. On inspecting the body, we found the whole of the alimentary canal inflamed, and a small spot on the stomach, of a purple colour, but no other morbid appearance. In such cases, however, the pulse, though feeble, is still hard, the general feebleness of the circu- lation not removing the necessity of supporting the motion of the blood in the more debilitated vessels of the inflamed part. We see other causes of great nervous irrita- tion, producing the same debility of the san- guiferous system. It appears from experi- ments above alluded to*, (an account of which was published in the second edition of my Treatise on Febrile Diseases), that throwing a strong solution of opium or tobacco into the cavity of the abdomen immediately enfeebles the power of the heart. We readily understand from what has been said, why the above phlegmasiae often and * Pages 133 and 134, 326 sometimes very suddenly prove fatal, without the inflammation running its usual course, the derangement of the nervous system being such as to destroy the powers of circulation. We also see why the pulse, in such cases, rises after blood-letting, which lessens the offending cause. I believe that in some other cases in which the pulse rises after blood-letting, this effect may be explained in the same way. On the same principle also, I think, we must explain the sudden debility, and subsequent loss of power in the circulating system, which ensues on gangrene of any of the vital organs. CHAP. IV. On Affections of the Spinal Marrow. The experiments in which different portions of the spinal marrow were destroyed* seem to throw considerable light on the nature of the symptoms occasioned by diseases of this organ. We have seen that the destruction of any part of it not only renders paralytic, that is, deprives of their only stimulus, the muscles of volun- tary motion which correspond to that part, and to all parts of the spinal marrow lying below * Exp. 54, 55, 56. 327 it # ; but, by lessening the supply of nervous influence to the great chain of ganglions, in- fluences the state of the thoracic and abdo- minal viscera and the temperature of the ani- mal. In estimating the effect on the thoracic and abdominal viscera of destroying portions of the spinal marrow in animals, we must trust rather to the appearances observed in the lungs and stomach after death than to the symptoms produced ; because as the animal can give no account of its feelings, no symp- tom of deranged digestion appears till it goes so far as to produce efforts to vomit, nor of oppressed breathing till it goes so far as to produce evident dyspnoea. Thus in the ex- periments just referred to, it appeared on dis- section, that the process of digestion was sometimes wholly suspended, and the lungs more or less congested, where no symptoms of indigestion, and little or no change in the breathing, had been observed. We often com- * It appears from what has been said, that although both the muscles corresponding to the part of the spinal marrow de- stroyed, and those corresponding to all parts below it, equally cease to move, it is from different causes ; the former, because their nervous influence is destroyed ; the latter, because their nervous influence is no longer subject to the sensorium. Whether in the former case the power of the muscles themselves is impaired, will depend on the rapidity with which the offend- ing cause has operated. See Part II., Chap. II. 328 plain of affections of the stomach and lungs long- before their symptoms can be perceived by others. Congestion and even inflamma- tion of the lungs do not excite cough in the rabbit. Even in early stages of diseased spine, affec- tions of the stomach and lungs frequently at- tend, and the patient often complains of a sense of cold. Mr. Pott remarks of this dis- ease, “ loss of appetite, a hard dry cough, labo- “ rious respiration, &c., appear pretty early, “ and in such a manner as to demand atten- “ tion. ,J And in another place he observes, that there is “ an unusual sense of coldness of “ the thighs, not accountable for from the “ weather.” Similar observations are made by every writer on diseased spine. How well they correspond with the foregoing views need not be pointed out. From what I shall have occasion to say of asthma and dyspepsia the reader w ill see reason to believe, that the fore- going symptoms may probably be relieved from time to time by the use of galvanism. It appears from experiment 59, in w hich the spinal marrow was simply divided, compared with experiments 54, 55, 56, in which portions of it were destroyed, that we may judge of the extent of the injury done to this organ, in diseases of the spine, by the state of the sto- mach and lungs. Any thing, which so affects 329 the spinal marrow as to interrupt the commu- nication between the brain and other parts, will of course prevent the influence of the will from reaching 1 them, however small a part of the spinal marrow may be injured. But if a considerable part of it is so, along with loss of power in the limbs, the patient will expe- rience symptoms of dyspepsia and oppressed breathing proportioned to the importance and extent of the part whose function is de- stroyed. I have already had occasion to ex- plain why the lungs are particularly affected by the destruction of the dorsal, and the intes- tines by that of the lumbar portion of the spinal marrow*. The experiments related in the preceding inquiry seem to point out more precisely than former observations have done, what we are to expect from the use of galvanism in the cure of disease ; and I think it will appear from what I am about to say, that to the want of discrimination in its employment we must ascribe the little advantage which medicine has hitherto derived from the discovery of this in- fluence -f\ * See Chap. IX. t Many of the following observations on Galvanism are re -published from a paper which the Royal Society did me 330 It is an inference, I have already had occa- sion to observe, from my own experiments and observations *, as well as those of others, par- ticularly of M. le Gallois, that w hat is called the nervous system, comprehends two distinct systems, the sensorial, and the nervous system properly so called. Now', it does not appear from the foregoing’ Inquiry, that galvanism can perform any of the functions of the sensorial system, yet, in the greater number of instances in which it has been used in medicine, it has been expected to restore the sensorial power. It has been expected to restore hearing, and sight, and voluntary power. It may now and then happen in favourable cases, from the con- nexion which subsists between the sensorial and nervous systems, that by rousing the energy of the latter, w r e may excite the former. It w'ould be easy to show, that we have little reason to expect that this will often happen. We have also reason to believe, from the expe- riments w hich have been laid before the reader, that galvanism has no other power over tne muscular system than that of a stimulus f ; w r e the honour of publishing in the Philosophical Transactions of last year. * See Chap. X., and the experiments there referred to. + Compare the experiments related in the first and second Chapters of this part of the Inquiry with Exp. 70, 71, 72, 73, * and the observations which follow them. 331 are, therefore, to expect little more advantage from it in diseases depending chiefly on faults of the sanguiferous system, than from other stimuli, &c. But I cannot help regard- ing it as almost ascertained, that in those dis- eases in which the derangement is in the ner- vous power alone, where the sensorial func- tions are entire, and the vessels healthy, and merely the power of secretion, which seems im- mediately to depend on the nervous system, is in fault, galvanism will often prove a valuable means of relief. CHAP. V. On Asthma and Dyspepsia. As soon as the foregoing view of the subject presented itself, I was led to inquire, what dis- eases depend on a failure of nervous influence. The effect on the stomach and lungs, of di- viding the eighth pair of nerves*, answered the question respecting two of the most im- portant diseases of this class. We have seen, that withdrawing a considerable part of the nervous influence from the stomach and lungs deranges the digestive powers, and produces * Exp. 44, 45. 332 great difficulty of breathing. The following observations relate chiefly to affections of the lungs. Of the effects of galvanism in dyspepsia, the principal experience which I have yet had, has been in cases where it was complicated with asthmatic breathing. When the effect of depriving the lungs of a considerable part of their nervous influence is carefully attended to, it will be found, I think, in all respects similar to a common disease, which may be called habitual asthma; in which the breathing is constantly oppressed, better and worse at different times, but never free, and often continues to get worse in defiance of every means we can employ, till the patient is permanently unfitted for all the active duties of life. The animal, in the above experiment, is not affected with the croaking noise and vio- lent agitation which generally characterize fits of spasmodic asthma. This state we cannot in- duce artificially, except by means which lessen the aperture of the glottis *. We have seen from repeated trials, that both the oppressed breathing and the collection of phlegm, caused by the division of the eighth pair of nerves, may be prevented by sending a stream of galvanism through the lungs f. That * See Chap. V. t Exp. 70, 71, 72, 73. 333 this may be done with safety in the human body we know from numberless instances, in which galvanism has been applied to it in every possible way. Such are the circumstances which led me to expect relief from galvanism in habitual asthma. It is because that expectation has not been disappointed, that I trouble the reader with the following account of its effects. Although the effects of galvanism in habitual asthma have been witnessed by many other medical men, I have mentioned nothing in the follow- ing pages which did not come under my own observation. I have employed galvanism in many cases of habitual asthma, and almost uniformly with re- lief. The time, during which the galvanism was applied before the patient said that his breathing was easy, has varied from five mi- nutes to a quarter of an hour. I speak of its application in as great a degree as the patient could bear without complaint. For this effect I generally found from eight to sixteen four- inch plates of zinc and copper, the fluid em- ployed being one part of muriatic acid, and twenty of water, sufficient. Some require more than sixteen plates, and a few cannot bear so many as eight ; for the sensibility of different individuals to galvanism is very different. It is curious and not easily accounted for, that a 334 considerable power, that perhaps of twenty-five or thirty plates, is often necessary on first ap- plying the galvanism, in order to excite any sensation ; yet after the sensation is once ex- cited, the patient shall not perhaps, particu- larly at first, be able to bear more than six or eight plates. The stronger the sensation ex- cited, the more speedy in general is the relief. I have known the breathing instantly relieved by a very strong power. I have generally made it a rule to begin with a very weak one, increasing it gradually at the patient’s re- quest, by moving one of the wires from one division of the trough to another, and moving it back again when he complained of the sensa- tion being too strong-. It is convenient for this purpose to charge with the fluid about thirty plates. The galvanism was applied in the following manner. Two thin plates of metal, about two or three inches in diameter, dipped in water, were applied, one to the nape of the neck, the other to the pit of the stomach, or rather lower. The wires from the different ends of the trough * * I found a trough, of the old construction, more effectual in restoring the due action of the lungs than the improved pile. I was at first at a less to account for this circumstance. From many observations I have now reason to believe, that it arises from such effects of galvanism, like its other effects on the animal body, being proportioned, not to the quantity of electricity 335 were brought into contact with these plates, and, as observed above, as great a galvanic power maintained, as the patient could bear without complaint. In this way the galvanic influence was sent through the lungs, as much as possible, in the direction of their nerves. It is proper, constantly to move the wires upon the metal plates, particularly the negative wire, otherwise the cuticle is injured in the places on which they rest. The relief seemed much the same, whether the positive wire was applied to the nape of the neck, or the pit of the stomach. The negative wire generally excites the strongest sensation. Some patients thought, that the re- supplied by the trough, but to the intensity of its electrical^ and quantity of its chemical power, both of which are propor- tioned rather to the number of plates, than to the extent of surface. I have repeatedly tried the effects of a powerful electrical machine, in habitual asthma. They are considerable, but in- ferior to those of the voltaic trough ; which I would ascribe to the former possessing much less chemical power, in proportion to the intensity of its electricity, than the latter. The most power- ful . electrical battery will not readily decompose water without the ingenious arrangement, suggested by Dr. Wollaston, for concentrating, as much as possible, its electrical power, while the power of a few voltaic plates is, without any precaution, sufficient for this purpose. There is reason to believe that plates of an inch and half, or two inches, square, would answer medical purposes nearly as well as larger plates. 336 lief was most speedy, when it was applied near the pit of the stomach. The galvanism was discontinued as soon as the patient said that his breathing was easy. In the first cases in which I used it, I sometimes prolonged its application for a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes, after the patient said he was perfectly relieved, in the hope of pre- venting the early recurrence of the dyspnoea ; but I did not find that it had this effect. It is remarkable, that in several who had la- boured under asthmatic breathing for from ten to twenty years, it gave relief quite as readily as in more recent cases ; which proves, that the habitual difficulty of breathing, even in the most protracted cases, is not to be ascribed to any permanent change having taken place in the lungs. With regard to that form of asthma which returns in violent paroxysms, with intervals of perfectly free breathing, I should expect little advantage from galvanism in it, because, as I have just observed, I found that the peculiar difficulty of breathing, which occurs in this species of asthma, cannot be induced in ani- mals, except by means lessening the aperture of the glottis. It is probable, that in the hu- man subject the cause producing this effect is spasm, from which, indeed, the disease takes its name, and we have no reason to believe, 337 from what we know of the nature of galva- nism, that it will prove the means of relaxing- spasm. The spasmodic asthma is fortunately a very rare disease, so much so, that but two cases of it have occurred to me since I have employed galvanism in asthma, while 1 have had an op- portunity of employing this remedy in about fifty cases of the habitual form of the disease. I cannot, therefore, from experience, speak with certainty of the effect of galvanism in the former. In the above cases it was employed in the paroxysm, and I could observe no relief from it. In one of them, the patient said, that, had it not been used, the symptoms would have been more severe. In this patient, the spasmodic paroxysm was often succeeded by a state of habitual asthma for several weeks, in which galvanism gave immediate, but tempo- rary relief. Of the above cases of habitual asthma, many occurred in work-people of the city where I reside, who had been obliged to abandon their employments in consequence of it, and some of them, from its long continuance, without any hope of returning to regular work. Most of them had tried the usual means in vain. By the use of galvanism they were relieved in different degrees, but all sufficiently to be re- stored to their employments. 1 have seen seve- z 338 ral of them lately, who, although they have not used galvanism for many months, said they had continued to work without any inconve- nience. Some, in whom the disease had been wholly removed, remain quite free from it ; some have had a return of it, and have derived the same advantage from galvanism as at first. I have confined the application of galvanism to asthmatic dyspnoea. I think there is reason to believe, from the experiments which have been laid before the reader, that in inflamma- tory cases it would be injurious ; and, in cases arising from dropsy, or any other mechanical impediment, little or nothing, it is evident, is to be expected from it. Habitual asthma is often attended with a languid state of the biliary system, and some fullness and tender- ness on pressure near the pit of the stomach. If the last is considerable, it must be relieved previous to the use of the galvanism. In a paper which the Medico-Chirurgical Society did me the honour to publish in the seventh volume of their Transactions, I have endeavoured to shew that a species of pulmonary consumption arises from a disease of the digestive organs. Some of the observations there made apply to certain cases of asthma * ; I believe, to cases of every * See also the observations on the state of these organs in asthma, in Dr. Bree’s work on this disease. 339 species of this disease, but particularly of that we are here considering. Many cases of habitual asthma will yield to the means re- commended in the above paper, but I have learned, from a pretty extensive experience, that a large majority of such cases will resist them, yet readily admit of relief from galvanism. If there is little tendency to inflammation, galvanism seems also to be a means of re- lieving the affection of the digestive organs. I have repeatedly seen from it the same effect on the biliary system which arises from calomel ; a copious bilious discharge from the bowels coming on within a few hours after its employ- ment. This seldom happens except where there appears to have been a failure in the secreting pow'er of the liver, or a defective action in the gall tubes. I have not found that the presence even of a severe cough, which is common in habitual asthma, in w hich there is always more or less cough, counter-indicates the use of galvanism. The cough, under its use, generally becomes less frequent in proportion as the accumulation of phlegm in the lungs is prevented ; but it seems to have no direct effect in allaying it. During the application of the galvanism the patient is sometimes excited to cough up the phlegm, which is oppressing the lungs. It frequently, however, disappears without being coughed up. z 2 340 In some cases the cough continued trouble- some after the dyspnoea had disappeared. Galvanism never appeared to increase it, except when the inflammatory diathesis was considerable. In some labouring under the most chronic forms of phthisis, in w hom the symptoms had lasted several years and habitual asthma had supervened, the relief obtained from galvanism w as very great, notw ithstanding some admixture of a pus-like substance in w hat wrns expectorated. I need hardly add, after what has been said, that in ordinary cases of phthisis nothing could be more improper than the use of galvanism. The dyspnoea arising from phthisis and that from habitual asthma are easily distinguished. The former is less variable. It is generally increased by the ex- acerbations of the fever, and alwavs bv exercise. When the patient is still and cool, except in the last stages of phthisis, his breathing is ge- nerally pretty easy. The latter is worst at par- ticular times of the day, and frequently be- comes better and worse without any evident cause. At the times when it is better the patient can often use exercise without material! -, increasing it.. It is unaccompanied by fever. Changes of the weather influence it much. It is particularly apt to be increased by close and foggy weather. Phthisical dyspnoea is seldom much influenced by changes of the weather. 341 except they increase the inflammatory ten- dency. When there is a considerable tendency to inflammation in habitual asthma, the repeated application of galvanism sometimes increases it so much, that the use of this influence no longer gives relief, till the inflammatory ten- dency is subdued by local blood-letting. It always gave relief most readily, and the relief was generally most permanent in those cases which were most free from inflammatory ten- dency, and least complicated with other dis- eases, the chief complaint^ being a sense of tightness across the region of the stomach, im- peding the breathing. The patients said, that the sense of tightness gradually abated while they were under the influence of the gal- vanism, and that as this happened their breath- ing became free. The abatement of the tight- ness was often attended with a sense of warmth in the stomach, which seemed to come in its place. This sensation was most frequently felt when the negative wire was applied near the pit of the stomach, but the relief did not seem less when it was not felt. With respect to the continuance of the re- lief obtained by galvanism, it was different in different cases ; in the most severe cases it did not last so long as in those where the symp- toms were slighter, though of equal continu- 342 ance. This observation, however, did not uni- versally apply. When the patient was gal- vanised in the morning, he generally felt its good effects more or less till next morning. In almost all, the repetition of the galvanism gra- dually increased the degree of permanent relief. Its increase was much more rapid in some cases than in others. The permanency of the good effects of galvanism in the disease before us, has appeared very remarkably in several cases where the symptoms, after having been re- moved by it, were renewed after intervals of different duration by cold or other causes. In these cases means which, previous to the use of galvanism, had failed to give relief, were now successful without its aid ; or with few appli- cations of it, compared with those which had been necessary in the first instance. I have not yet seen any case, in which galvanism had been of considerable advantage, w here its good effects appeared to have been wholly lost. It is now' about two years and a half since I first employed it in habitual asthma. Taking cold and the excessive use of fermented licjuors have been the principal causes of relapse. The galvanism was seldom used more than once a day. In some of the more severe cases it was used morning and evening. About a sixth part of those who have used it appear, as far as we yet know , to have obtained a radical 343 tune. It in no case failed to give more or less relief, provided there was little inflammatory tendency. It failed to give considerable relief only in about one-tenth ; I may add, that were it only the means of present relief, we have reason to believe that, as being more innocent, it would be found preferable to the heating, spirituous, and soporific medicines, which are so constantly employed in this disease. As it often happened that a very small gal- vanic power, that of not more than from four to six four-inch double plates, relieved the dyspnoea, may we not hope, that a galvanic apparatus may be constructed, which can be worn by the patient, of sufficient power to pre- vent its recurrence in some of the cases in which the occasional use of the remedy does not pro- duce a radical cure ? I wished to try, if the impression on the mind, in the employment of galvanism, has any share in the relief obtained from it. 1 had not at this time seen its effects in apoplexy. I found that by scratching the skin with the sharp end of a wire, I could produce a sen- sation so similar to that excited by galvanism, that those who had most frequently been sub- jected to this influence were deceived by it. By this method, and arranging the trough, pieces of metal, &c., as usual, I deceived se- 344 veral who had formerly received relief from galvanism, ana iso several who had not yet used it. All of them said that they experienced no relief from what I did. Without allowing them to rise, I substituted for this process the real application of galvanism, merely by im- mersing in the trough without their know ledge, one end of the wire with which ! had scratched the nape of the neck, the wire at the pit of the stomach having been all the time ap- plied as usual by the patients themselves. Before the application of the galvanism had been continued as long as the previous pro- cess, they all said they were relieved. 1 relate the particulars of the two following experi- ments, because, independently of the principal object in view in making them, they point out tw'o circumstances of importance in judging of the modus opera ndi of galvanism in asthmatic cases. The first was made on an unusually intelli- gent lady, of about thirty-five years of age. w ho had for many years laboured under habi- tual asthma, than whom I have known none more capable of giving a distinct account of their feelings. Her breathing was very much oppressed at the time that she first used gal- vanism. The immediate effect was, that she breathed with ease. She said she had not breathed so well for many years. Part of the 345 relief she obtained proved permanent, and when she was galvanised once a day for about ten minutes, she suffered little dyspnoea at any time. After she had been galvanised for eight or ten days, I deceived her in the manner just mentioned. The deception was complete. She told me to increase or lessen the force of the galvanism, as she was accustomed to do, ac- cording to the sensation it produced. 1 obeyed her directions by increasing or lessening the force with which I scratched the neck with the wire. After I had done this for five minutes, she said the galvanism did not relieve her as usual, and that she felt the state of her breathing' the same as when the operation was begun. I then allowed the galvanism to pass through the chest, but only through the upper part of it, the wire in front being applied about the mid- dle of the sternum. She soon said that she felt a little relief ; but although it was continued in this way for ten minutes, the relief was imper- fect. 1 then directed her to apply the wire in front to the pit of the stomach, so that the gal- vanism passed through the whole extent of the chest, and, in a minute and a half, she said her breathing was easy, and that she now experi- enced the whole of the effect of the former ap- plications of the remedy. To try how far the effect of galvanism in asthma arises merely from its stimulating the 346 spinal marrow, in a young woman who had been several times galvanised in the usual way, the wires were applied to the nape of the neck and small of the back, and thus the galvanic influence was sent along the spine for nearly a quarter of an hour. She said her breath- ing was easier, but not so much so as on the former applications of the galvanism ; and on attempting to walk up stairs she began to pant, and found her breathing, when she had gone about half way, as difficult as before the galvanism was applied. She was then gal- vanised in the usual way for five minutes : she now said her breathing was quite easy, and she walked up the whole of the stairs without bringing on any degree of panting, or feeling any dyspnoea. The above experiment was made in the presence of four medical gentle- men. This patient, after remaining free from her disease for about half a year, returned to the Infirmary, labouring under a slighter degree of it, and experienced immediate relief from gal- vanism. The disease seemed to have been re- newed by cold, which had at the same time produced other complaints. This is one of the cases above alluded to in speaking of the per- manency of the good effects of galvanism. On the return of this patient to the Infirmary, two or three applications of galvanism, combined with means which had given no permanent re- 347 lief to the dyspnoea previous to her first using galvanism, now soon removed it. When she first used galvanism, it required its constant employment once or twice a day for several weeks to produce the same effect. There is reason to believe she will remain well if she can avoid taking severe colds. Many medical gentlemen have frequently witnessed the relief afforded by galvanism in habitual asthma, and Mr. Cole, the house sur- geon of the Worcester Infirmary, authorizes me to say, that no other means there employed have been equally efficacious in relieving this disease. Observations similar to the foregoing, there is reason to believe, will be found to apply to dyspepsia ; but, as I observed above, having- made but few trials of galvanism in this disease, except where it was complicated with asthma, the removal of which no doubt contributed to a more healthy action of the digestive organs, 1 cannot yet speak with certainty of its effects in this disease. In some, galvanism, at the time of its application, occasions a tendency to sighing ; and in some, in whom it removed the dyspnoea, it seemed to occasion a sense of sinking referred to the pit of the stomach. This occurred in several instances, and was 348 relieved by small doses of carbonate of iron and bitters. That I may convey to the reader as correct an idea as I can of the effects of galvanism in habitual asthma, I shall concisely relate the particulars of a few of the most, and of the least, successful cases, in which it was em- ployed. Richard Morgan, a blacksmith, set. 50, had laboured under severe habitual asthma for seven months, during which he had been better and worse for a few weeks, but never free from dyspnoea^ He was much troubled with a cough, the expectorated matter being thick, and of a yellowish colour. The dyspnoea was particularly severe at the time he was galvanised, and had been so for about a fortnight. The first application of the galvanism relieved him. He was galvanised only for three days, about ten minutes each day, before he declared himself to be perfectly well. He returned to his work, which he had been obliged to abandon, after the second application of the galvanism. After its third application he per- formed as hard work, and with as much ease, as he had ever done. He remained free from dyspnoea till it was renewed, several weeks afterwards, by intoxi- 349 cation. Galvanism relieved him as readily and effectually as at first. It is now ten months since he first used this remedy, during 1 which he has had several returns of dyspnoea, but it has never been so severe as before he was gal- vanised ; and when it has been such as to in- duce him to have recourse to galvanism, he has always experienced from it immediate relief. He ascribes the returns of his disease to his being 1 exposed to severe and sudden heats and chills. Mary M‘Konchy, set. 28, a gloveress, had been afflicted with habitual asthma for four years, and under my care about one year, during which she had tried all the usual means with very imperfect relief ; she had some languor in the biliary system, but little inflam- matory tendency. The breathing was, in a few minutes, rendered easy by galvanism, and after the second application of it, it remained so. She now experienced no inconvenience from exercise, which had not at any time been the case for four years. In about three weeks after she had been gal- vanised she experienced some return of the dyspnoea. It was wholly removed by a blister, which had often been tried, previous to her being galvanised, with but little and very tem- porary relief. She complained of a sense of 350 sinking at the stomach for some time after the use of the galvanism, which was removed by carbonate of iron and bitters. This effect of galvanism seemed often to be most felt when it gave most relief to the dyspnoea, seeming to come in place of the latter. 1 have hitherto found it easily removed by the above means. It is now many months since this patient was galvanised, and she remains well. Hannah Cooke, set. 20, a servant, had laboured under habitual asthma for two months, and tried various medicines without relief. She w as in a few minutes relieved by galvanism, and after three applications of it remained cpiite well. It is now five or six weeks since she was galvanised. I could mention several other cases, in which I witnessed the same sudden and per- manent relief from galvanism, as in those here related. Isaac Radley, aet. 68, a labourer, formerly a soldier, had been ill fourteen a ears. His asthma w as caused by sleeping in camp in Hol- land. He had never been able, during the above time, to walk at the usual pace without bringing on the dyspnoea, although he had sometimes been pretty free from it w hen he w as still ; at other times he had been constantly op- 351 pressed with it, and obliged wholly to abandon his work. At the time he used the galvanism, he was affected with the most severe dyspnoea, which only allowed him to move, and that with difficulty, at the slowest pace ; he had been in this state for half a year. This was the longest and most severe fit he had ever had. He was relieved in a few minutes by the application of galvanism. Hecould perceiveits beneficial effects for twenty-four hours after its application. It was used daily with the same immediate relief. Its permanent good effects gradually increased, and after he had been galvanised for about ten minutes each day, for between two and three weeks, his breathing remained quite easy. He could now not only walk, but, as I several times witnessed, run without any dyspnoea. He complained of the sense of sinking at the pit of the stomach after the dyspnoea had left him, which, as in the case just mentioned, w'as readily removed by the carbonate of iron and bitters. Fie now said his digestion was much better than it had been previously to the use of the galvanism. Those whose breathing had been much relieved by galvanism, often made this observation, although they had not ex- perienced the sense of sinking, and conse- quently had used no stomachic medicines. I saw this man, several months after he had ceased to use galvanism, working as a brick- 352 layer’s labourer. He said he had no feeling- of dyspnoea. It is now above two years since he used the galvanism, and he has had no return of the disease. In genera!, where galvanism gave such com- plete and permanent relief, as in Radley’s case, its effects were more speedy, some degree of dyspnoea for the most part remaining in pro- tracted cases. The following are the most unsuccessful cases, which either Mr. Cole or I could re- collect. Martha Davies, a servant, set. 40, had la- boured under habitual asthma for five y ears. She was relieved on the first application of gal- vanism, and said her breathing was quite easy ; but she was not always equally relieved bv it, sometimes it gave comparatively little relief, The more permanent relief afforded, was also different at different times, never complete. She was galvanised for about three weeks, but not daily, her business preventing her regular attendance; she used the remedy in all thirteen or fourteen times. It was impossible to pre- vent her drinking a great deal too much malt liquor. It is now about half a year since she was galvanised, during which she says both her breathing and digestion have been better than 353 for the preceding five years. She thinks the digestion as much improved as the breathing. She has had no very bad attacks of dyspnoea, and has been much less subject to bilious at- tacks. She is now occasionally so well that she can run without inconvenience, which she could never do during the above time'; but, in general, her breathing, though in a less degree than formerly, is still oppressed. Mary Clark, a servant, set. 24, had laboured under habitual asthma for about a year. The dyspnoea was always quickly relieved by the galvanism, although she seemed to experience little, if any, permanent relief from it. She had more pain in the stomach than is usual in such cases, and the galvanism seemed to in- crease it. She was cured by an alterative course of medicines and evacuations from the region of the stomach, and did not use gal- vanism for the last fortnight. She had used it at first daily for a fortnight, and twice after- wards for a w'eek each time. As far as I can judge from having observed the course of many cases of this kind, her re- covery would neither have been so speedy nor complete if she had not used galvanism. Rachel Hooper, set. 29, a servant, had la- boured under severe habitual asthma for about 2 a 354 a year, with considerable inflammatory ten- dency. Her breathing was relieved in a few minutes by galvanism, but not completely. For about eight or ten days, during which she was galvanised daily for about ten minutes, she derived from it considerable relief, both imme- diate and permanent. It then began to fail to give relief, and in a few days gave none. The epigastric region was now very tender on pres- sure. This symptom was relieved in the space of a few days by local blood-letting, blis- tering, and small doses of calomel. The re- lief afforded by the galvanism was now greater than at first, which seemed to arise from the disease not being so severe as on the first use ef the remedy, for some part of the good effects of the galvanism had remained. After this she was always relieved by it as long as she continued to use it, which was for several weeks. The permanent relief she experienced from it was also great, although she still at times laboured under a considerable degree of dyspnoea. About a year and half ago, she left Worcester, with a promise to return, if she should get worse. I have heard nothing of her since. She said nothing else had given her so much, either immediate or permanent, relief, as the galvanism had done. She had been for several months in the infirmary under other plans of 355 treatment before she used the galvanism. All the patients whose cases I have mentioned were galvanised at the infirmary. The following is a remarkable instance of permanent, though imperfect, relief, from gal- vanism, in the disease before us. A woman, who had for many years laboured under se- vere habitual asthma, was incautiously galva- nised with such a power as occasioned severe pain. No intreaty could induce her to submit to a repetition of the galvanism, although it had immediately relieved her breathing. The dyspnoea soon recurred, but she told me many months afterwards that it had never been so se- vere since she was galvanised, and that she had ever since been able to carry water in buckets from the river, which the state of her breath- ing had not for a long time previously allowed her to do. If the reader will compare these cases with the general observations which I have had oc- casion to make on the effects of galvanism in habitual asthma, he will be enabled to form a pretty correct estimate of what he may expect from its employment in this disease. When we compare them with the experi- ments laid before the reader in the preceding Inquiry, the question naturally arises, Whence 2 a 2 356 proceeds the permanent relief obtained in them ? The galvanic experiments lead us to expect relief to the dyspnoea while the stream of galvanism passes through the lungs ; but on what principle shall we explain the perma- nency of the relief afforded ? The following ob- servations appear to throw some light on this subject. There are two ways in which an organ may be deprived of its nervous influence, either by a failure of due action in the brain and spinal marrow, the sources of nervous in- fluence, or a failure of due action in the nerves of the organ affected by which this influence is conveyed. It is no longer conveyed by a nerve w hich has been divided, or around which a ligature has been thrown. Now w e have rea- son to believe, that habitual asthma arises not so much from a fault in the brain and spinal marrow, as in the nerves of the lungs; because, did the degree of dyspnoea, which we often witness in this disease, arise from failure in the general source of nervous influence, this failure must be sufficient to appear in the derange- ment of all the nervous functions ; w hereas in habitual asthma, we often find the function of the lungs alone affected ; and when general failure of nervous influence is observed, it is evidently the effect of impeded respiration, ap- pearing only after the latter has continued for some time, and varying as it varies. The ef- 35 7 feet produced by galvanism, when it performs a cure in habitual asthma, therefore, does not appear to be its having' occasioned a permanent supply of nervous influence, but its having cleared, if l may use the expression, the pas- sage of this influence to the lungs. It is not difficult to conceive that such an obstruction may exist in the nerves as cannot be over- come by the usual supply of nervous influence, though it may yield to a greatly increased supply of it ; and that it may in some cases continually recur in an equal or diminished degree, while in others, being once removed, the tendency to it may cease. What is here said is well illustrated by the effects of galva- nism in apoplexy. We know that in this dis- ease the dyspnoea arises from a failure in the source of nervous influence, and the relief ob- tained from galvanism corresponds with the views afforded by the experiments which have been laid before the reader. While the galva- nism passed through the lungs the dyspnoea was as much relieved as in habitual asthma, but when it ceased to pass through them, the relief lasted no longer than was necessary for the re-accumulation of the phlegm. The foregoing observations seem to explain why other means, which give a temporary vigour to the nervous system, often, for the time, relieve habitual asthma ; and sometimes, though rarely, cure this disease. The relief obtained from such means being in general so much less than that obtained from galvanism, I would ascribe to the former occasioning but little additional supply of nervous influence, while by the latter we can make the additional supply as great as we please. CHAP. VI. On Suspended Animation. The last disease which I shall mention is suspended animation from drowning, or other causes obstructing the breathing. Inflating the lungs seems here to act in two ways. It gives to the blood of the smaller vessels of the lungs the arterial properties by which they are excited to action ; and acting through the blood of these vessels, it communicates to that of the larger vessels, and of the heart itself, more or less of the same properties, independently of the blood already changed being moved on to- wards this organ ; for M. le Gallois has shewn, that’ after the circulation has permanently ceased, the blood may be changed, by in- flating the lungs, not only in the trunks of the pulmonary veins and the heart itself, but also 359 in the aorta. By these means the circulation in the lungs is restored, but it is evident from the experiments which have been laid before the reader, that their due action cannot be re- stored till they receive their usual supply of nervous influence. Now this cannot happen till the re-established circulation has renewed the vigour of the brain and spinal marrow. We have reason to believe, that could the due degree of this influence be restored to the lungs as soon as the circulation is renewed in them by the access of the air, they would be excited to a more perfect performance of their func- tions ; and that recovery might thus be effected in some cases, where inflation of the lungs alone would fail. We have seen, from direct experiment, that galvanism can supply the place of nervous in- fluence, in the lungs, enabling them to perform their functions after the latter is withdrawn. I would, therefore, propose, that, to the means employed for the recovery of suffocated per- sons, an apparatus, properly adapted for send- ing a stream of galvanism through the lungs in the direction of their nerves, as above pointed out, should be added. It would be improper here to employ, for any considerable length of time, a stronger power than experi- ence has taught us can be used without bad 360 effects in health. The power should not ex- ceed that of fifteen, or at most, twenty, four- inch double plates of zinc and copper, the fluid being one part of muriatic acid and twenty of water. I should expect little advantage from galva- nism applied to any other secreting organ, be- cause the revival of the patient depends little, if at all, on the action of any other. Employed as a' general stimulus to the brain and spinal marrow, it may be of use by rous- ing the dormant powers of the system. They are all, we have seen, capable of being ex- cited through these organs. In this way it can only indirectly assist the lungs, and that chiefly in proportion to the degree in which general circulation is restored. It is probable, that as a general stimulus, a greater power of gal- vanism may be used without injury, than it would be proper to send through any vital or- gan for a considerable length of time, because employed with this view, it may be applied in- terruptedly. Do not the experiments which have been laid before the reader tend to throw some light on the nature of the sympathy which exists be- tween different parts of the body, and so exten- sively influences the symptoms and treatment 361 of diseases* * * § ? If it appears that the nervous influence is not only capable of exciting, and acting as a sedative to, the moving fibre where- ever it exists, and whether subject to the will or not |, and of influencing, in every possible way, the secreting process J, but is itself of such a nature, that it is capable of pervading equally the solids and fluids of the body, and of being instantly moved from place to place, through the medium of the central parts of the nervous system, independently of any immediate con- nexion of vessels or nerves §, it w ill not be diffi- cult to explain the various phenomena of sym- pathy, many of which at first view' appear so unaccountable. * I have, in a paper above referred to, published in the seventh volume of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, enu- merated some of the more striking instances in which the sympathy of parts influences the symptoms and treatment of diseases. t Part II. Chap. 2. I Chap. 5. § Chap. 5. The phenomena of sympathy seem always to take place through the intervention of the brain or spinal marrow. We still, by sympathy, refer sensations to parts,* which are lost, till new associations are formed. The immediate cause of sensation in these cases must exist in the senso- rium. We cannot shew why it should so exist in these cases and not in all. * ••••' • ’• 1 '■ fl : 4 " - ■ ' »i ■ f U *!. / rr| ' ; .i . - s „ f»J|j t.-. ; J / . APPENDIX. I HAVE in the Preface given my reasons for entering on the subject of this Appendix. They will more fully appear in the circum- stances which I am about to lay before the Reader. So much has lately been said, parti- cularly by some members of the Royal Society, respecting the cruelty of experiments on living animals, and so much of what has been said personally applied to me, that I cannot help feeling myself called upon to vindicate my cha- racter against charges, which, I hope, I shall easily make it appear, have no foundation ex- cept in mistake respecting facts, and the most narrow views in reasoning on them. By some I have been censured for the num- ber of my experiments on living animals; by others for the minuteness with which I have sometimes detailed them ; some object to making any such experiments at all, others, 364 I understand, admitting their occasional ne- cessity, have objected to their being laid before the Royal Society, there being in this country societies of the greatest respectability, which have been formed for the purpose of receiving and laying before the Public papers on all sub- jects relating to medicine. Lastly, I have been accused of allowing myself to be deceived, or wishing to deceive others, respecting the result of some of my experiments. The number of my experiments arises from the great variety of subjects which the Inquiry embraces. It will be found on examination, that the experiments relating to any one of the subjects, requiring the employment of living animals, are fewer than it is usual to make in such investigations. It has been uniformly my aim, as every part of the preceding Inquiry demonstrates, to lessen as much as possible the suffering occasioned by it. A large majority of my experiments M as made on the newly dead animal, a circumstance m hich my accusers have always overlooked. The minuteness of some of my details ori- ginated in the wish just mentioned, to lessen as much as I could the suffering inseparable from such investigations, by rendering as few repetitions of the experiments as possible re- 365 quisite. The chief means of doing so is to watch every step of them with strict attention, and give to the reader such details as to con- vince him, that if they were not frequently repeated, they were made with a degree of care which rendered frequent repetitions unneces- sary. Besides, these details are often requisite to prevent errors in case the experiments should be repeated by others. Those versed in sub- jects of this nature know how much unneces- sary suffering to animals, and trouble to the operator, their omission has sometimes occa- sioned. Every man of a moment’s reflection must be aware, that whether such details are given or not, they necessarily have existed. We here see, I cannot help thinking, one of those instances in which, in such questions, a false and sickly sensibility is constantly at- tempting to usurp the place of true and rational feeling. Whom have I seen among my open defenders? men known for all the kindest feel- ings and the best social virtues. They look beyond the means, and perceive them directed to prevent infinitely more suffering than they occasion, and that of a higher order; for who will compare human suffering, with all its re- collections, and all its forebodings, to the suf- fering of the animal, which feels only the pre- sent moment ? These observations bring me to 366 the consideration of a question more deserving of notice. Many good and even dispassionate men have doubted, whether we are entitled, with a view to the welfare of our own species, to make painful experiments on the inferior animals. The earnestness with which a dispute on this -sub- ject was conducted about two years ago in the New Monthly Magazine, induced me to address to the editor some observations on it, under the signature of Philanthropos, which appeared in that Magazine in September, 1816. I shall beg leave to present these observations to the reader with little change. They relate to the general subject of cruelty to animals. I shall not omit what is said of the other instances of this cruelty, because I cannot help thinking', that in them, the gentlemen who have stepped forward in the present question, will find a more appropriate, as well as a far more exten- sive field for the exercise of their feelings. I beg the reader to recollect that the follow- ing observations were published anonymously, and never meant to appear, except in the work for which they were written. They will, on these accounts, the better answer the purpose of the present address, because they must, under such circumstances, be regarded as the real 367 sentiments of the writer. He will excuse the popular style which the pages of a magazine require. “ On Cruelty to Animals. “ But if our sports are destructive, our glut- “ tony is more so, and in a more inhuman “ manner/’ — Guardian , No. 61. “ Mr. Editor, “ 1 trouble you with the following observa- tions, in consequence of the various papers which have appeared in the different numbers of your magazine, on the subject of cruelty to animals. I hope and trust that both parties in this dispute have expressed more than they would coolly maintain, which is very common in disputes of all kinds. I cannot believe that Immisericors , or any other man, who retains the faculty of judging between right and wrong, can approve of the experiment of Doctor Pit- cairn, of Edinburgh, which he details. Nor can I suppose that his opponents will, on re- flection, maintain, that the greatest physiolo- gists, many of whom were equally remarkable for profound talents, and all the best feelings of our nature, are properly designated by the epithets of heartless and cold-blooded. One thing in the papers, on this side of the question. 36S seems at first view extraordinary. They are written with the best feelings, and I have no doubt the best intentions ; yet they dwell only on one species of cruelty to animals, and that the least censurable, because it is of most rare occurrence, and is perhaps the only one which admits of any justifiable defence on the plea of utility. This I think it is not very difficult to account for. What is of frequent occurrence makes little impression, so much are Ave crea- tures of habit. But to calm reflection, the fre- quent occurrence of the evil serves only to aggravate it. We smile at the reply of the girl w ho w as accused of skinning the eels — that it was nothing - to them, because they were accus- tomed to it! but her reply only indicates a greater degree of the same deception to which we are all liable, but which it is the province of reflection to guard us against. The poor girl did not reflect that it was she herself, and not the eel, that had by habit become familiar w ith the operation she was defending. “ As experiments on living animals are the topic of discussion in the papers above alluded to, I shall first offer my sentiments on this sub- ject ; endeavouring, on the one hand, to guard against that sympathy for the sufferers which, however amiable, tends, like all other feelings, when in excess, to blind the judgment; and, on the other hand, against that unfeeling, and, in 369 my opinion, most unjust principle, that the greatest sufferings of the brute creation are not to be placed in competition with the slightest advantage accruing to the human race. What- ever be the feelings of individuals, or of the moment, either on the one side of the question or the other, I am convinced that there is some point between these extremes, where the ge- neral and dispassionate opinion of mankind will always be found. I believe that, among the best informed and most reflecting part of the community, the propriety of experiments on living animals under certain restrictions, will always be admitted. This opinion is founded simply on the fact, that ill many in- stances, the suffering which they have pre- vented has been infinitely greater than that which they caused ; instances in proof of this assertion I shall presently have occasion to ad- duce. I cannot regard such experiments as justifiable on any other principle. As means of satisfying curiosity, or even of extending knowledge which does not tend to prevent more suffering than they occasion, as far as I am capable of judging, they cannot be too de- cidedly condemned. “ Several of your correspondents have main- tained that there are no circumstances, under which experiments on living animals should be performed, supporting their opinion by the 2 B 370 maxim, that we are not to do evil, that good may come. This maxim cannot be regarded as applicable to physical evil. Nobody con- siders it wrong to whip a child and amputate a limb, provided they are done under proper circumstances. Those who use it as an argu- ment on the present occasion, therefore, appear to me to beg the question; the point in dispute being, — whether experiments on living animals are, under all circumstances, morally wrong. If so, there cannot be two opinions respecting them. We shall suppose a case which has actually occurred. Men are thrown on a coast where they find nothing to maintain life but fruits with which they are unacquainted, but some of w hich they know to be poisonous. Is it morally wrong that they should, by experi- ments on their dogs, ascertain w hich are poi- sonous before they themselves eat them ? No- body, surely, can hesitate in answering this question. If so, can we censure Orfila for one of the most extensive set of experiments on living animals which has been laid before the public, made for the purpose of discovering antidotes for the poisons often accidentally taken in ordinary life, by which many human beings have been saved, and many thousands will be saved, from one of the most painful of all deaths? Or, will it be maintained that ani- mals may be sacrificed to save one man to-day. 37 1 but not to save thousands at a future period ? Who can calculate what human suffering has been prevented, and how many human lives have been saved, by the experiments on living animals, for example, which taught the circu- lation of the blood, and thus gave to the prac- tice of medicine, in many, particularly in- flammatory, diseases, a precision formerly un- known ! “ In the character of those, who have been engaged in such experiments we see a sanction for them of a different kind. Where shall we find a man of a stronger moral sense or sounder principles of religion than Boerhaave was ? If such a man has existed it was Haller, whose observations on the Christian religion are esteemed even by those who devote their lives to its study, and whose letters to his daughter shew how much alive he was to all the gentler feelings ; yet of all the physiologists of his time, he made most experiments on living animals, and most frequently appealed to the evidence afforded by them. Where shall we find a brighter ornament to the church or to human nature than the celebrated Hales, emphatically called the Christian Philosopher? yet he scrupled not to make experiments on living animals to improve our knowledge of physio- logy. Many similar examples might be ad- duced. Let us be cautious how we arraign the 2 b 2 372 judgment of such men. Your correspondents frequently refer to the opinions of the no less celebrated Johnson. The greatest advocates of this writer have lamented the prejudices which clouded his otherwise excellent understanding, and prevented his judging with accuracy of many questions in w hich the feelings are con- cerned. I cannot help thinking that in the question before us the example of such men as those whom I have mentioned is a safer guide. While we are determining the question, whether w'e shall voluntarily inflict suffering on the inferior animals, we must not allow our feelings to betray us into the forgetfulness, that this question, in the present case, involves another, — shall we by such means endeavour to prevent much more extensive suffering ? Let me repeat, that neither the train of reasoning which I have pursued, nor the example of the great men whom I have mentioned, can sanc- tion experiments on living animals made from a motive of curiosity, or even for the purpose of acquiring information on subjects of subor- dinate consequence. By pointing out the great and good purposes which such experi- ments may be made to serve, they seem to afford an additional argument against having recourse to them on slight occasions. If it be necessary that animals should sometimes be sacrificed for the advancement of a science, in 373 which the well-being of our species is so deeply concerned, it is doubly incumbent on us to protect them from wanton cruelty. This re- flection naturally leads us to the other parts of the subject. “ ft must be owing to that tendency of our nature, which I have had occasion to mention in the beginning of this paper, that the sense of the public seems, under certain circum- stances, to admit of the lawfulness of cruelty for amusement. Are not hunting and fishing sanctioned by public opinion ? Do we not see men of the best moral feeling engaged in both ? It may be said in reply, that the animals de- stroyed are meant for the food of man, and that in hunting and fishing we only obey the dictates of nature. But why are not fish always caught by the net ? Why are they exposed to the torment of the hook, in some kinds of fishing long protracted? And is there no sympathy for the animal, sometimes a fish, a worm, a frog, &c., impaled alive on the hook, and in many cases so applied as to preserve life as long as possible? Why are the suffer- ings of the animal prolonged in hunting, by using dogs of little greater speed than the ani- mal hunted ? Why is it sometimes caught by other means, and turned loose on purpose to be hunted? and why, when it is rare, and con- sequently valuable, is it saved from the dogs to be hunted again on a future day ? Can any 374 physiological experiments be more cruel than these practices, whose object is mere amuse- ment ? The train of thought into which I have been led cannot fail to make us wish that, at least, the more cruel parts of such amusements were avoided. Let me pause for a moment on the sufferings of the post-horse, frequently in- flicted on very frivolous occasions, and some- times increased even to death. The most humane will often hear unmoved the repeated lash of fhe post-boy’s whip urging to almost impossible exertions. Such is the power of habit ! To enumerate all the instances of this kind would be endless. “ There is another species of cruelty that ought not to be overlooked, which is, if pos- sible, still more reprehensible ; and which, if not actually sanctioned by public opinion, is overlooked by the public. The cruelty prac- tised in our markets, the mere effect of care- lessness, or for the purpose of obtaining the lowest of all gratifications, is disgraceful both to our age and country. Who but those daily- accustomed to it, can see unmoved eels stripped of their skins, and hung up to w rithe to death in hours of agony, for no other reason than that the skinning, which is otherwise necessary, saves the trouble of killing them in any other way? And who, without feelings of indigna- tion, can see other fish cut across in various places, and left to die in similar agony, merely 375 to improve their flavour ? Many similar prac- tices might be mentioned. These things are not, like the solitary experiment of the physio- logist, of rare occurrence ; they are the inci- dents of every day, which produces not one or two, but thousands of instances of them. There are few physiological experiments, per- haps, by which half so much suffering is occa- sioned, as arises from each instance of these daily, general, and 1 may surely be allowed to say, useless cruelties. What arguments shall we use to extenuate these and the cruelties of amusement ? When shall we hear a voice, like that of Boerhaave, Haller, or Hales, raised to defend them ? We must not commit their de- fence to any train of reasoning. They are tolerated only because we do not allow our- selves to reflect on them.” “ Philanthropos.” If I may be allowed, in addition to what is saitl in the first part of the above paper, to speak of any thing which I have myself done, I would say, that the employment of galvanism in habi- tual asthma, even in its still very limited extent, and during the short period in which it has been used, has saved many times the suffering occa- sioned by all the experiments which led to it. Nay, I could mention single cases from which alone, if it had never been employed in any other, this might be said:— Yet let not those, who view 376 the physiologist only in his work, imagine that he inflicts suffering on animals without reluct- ance. In this Treatise itself the intelligent reader will perceive sufficient proofs of that reluctance. It contains experiments only on subjects of the first importance. It contains no superfluous repetitions, and in every instance in which it could be done without influencing the result, which was the case, as I have mentioned above, in a large majority of my experiments, the sen- sibility of the animal was destroyed previous to their commencement. Many who did me the favour to assist me in my experiments know, that I often abstained from ascertaining points, which I wished to ascertain ; because I did not consider them of sufficient importance to war- rant the suffering, which the investigation would occasion. Accused as I have been, I may be allowed to state, and the truth of the assertion is easily ascertained, that there is no other instance of a physiological inquiry of equal extent with the present, in which so few living animals were employed ; a fact w hich is alone sufficient to evince the feelings, with which it was conducted. With respect to the objection which some make to laying the account of such experi- ments before the Royal Society, I admit its force ; but they w ill do me the justice to allow , that in this 1 only followed the example of men 377 of the greatest respectability and first name in onr profession. Besides, my first papers hav- ing been, not only favourably received, but ordered to be published, 1 did not expect any opposition of this kind to other papers of a similar nature. My reason for offering my first paper to the Royal Society was, that its results contradicted those of the experiments of M. le Gallois, which had received the sanction of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and in support of which the Academy had published a memoir of above seventy pages. It will be admitted that it was natural for me, under such circum- stances, to wish that my experiments should be published with the sanction of the Royal So- ciety. I might here also urge the encourage- ment which has been given by this Society to such investigations, even from its earliest esta- blishment. The most painful part of my task remains. I do not shrink from it, because the cause of truth, no less than the duty I owe to my- self, calls for it. I have been accused of al- lowing myself to be deceived, or wishing to de- ceive others, respecting the results of some of my experiments. Of four papers which I have had the honour to present to the Royal Society, the two first and the last were ordered to be published. After the paper which was not published had been in 378 the hands of the President for several weeks, for whose obliging conduct towards me on va- rious occasions I must ever feel grateful, I learned, through a channel by which it was impossible for me to be deceived, not only that he had expressed an opinion of it highly grati- fying to me, but that he had received a favour- able report of it from those, whom he con- sidered best versed in the subject of which it treated, to whose consideration he had sub- mitted it. The next intelligence which 1 received re- lating to it was, that it was not to be published by the Society ; and a few days afterwards I received a letter from a friend, who is in habits of intimacy with many of the members of the Royal Society, in which he states, “ 1 have “ good reason to believe that it has been re- “ ported in and out of the Royal Society, that te vour observations and conclusions are not * “ correct, and that the stomach cannot be “ made to act by the process you have de- “ scribed.” 1 had soon reason to believe from several other circumstances, that the President and others had changed their opinion respect- ing the merits of ray paper. At this time I viewed these circumstances with surprise. They appeared to me inexpli- cable, for I could not conceive the possibility of what the following incident disclosed. One thing alone I was assured of, that such men as 379 those who had, in the first instance, given an opinion respecting my paper, would not change it on slight grounds. As the paper had been written from detached notes, and I had kept no regular copy of it, I wrote to one of the Vice-presidents of the So- ciety, requesting, that as it was not to be pub- lished, it might be returned, or, if that could not be done, that a copy of it might be sent to me. The Vice-president’s letter is now before me, in which he says, — “ I applied to the “ council for a copy of your paper, and gave “ directions to the clerk to copy it.” In ad- dition to the copy of my paper, thus made out by order of the council, which also now lies before me, I found, to my great astonishment, written in the same hand with the copy of the paper, the following observation of the clerk with the subjoined account of an experiment. “ N. B. The following is a copy of a paper, “ written in a different hand, and pinned in “ page 13, over part of the account of Exp. 3 *, “ without any reference to the text what- “ ever.” “ Two rabbits, which had had no food for “ seventeen hours, were allowed to eat parsley. “ The nerves of the were then divided “ in the neck of each. One of them was allowed “ to remain quiet. A slip of tin foil was con- * The first of my galvanic experiments. 380 44 nected to the lower divided ends of the nerves “ of the other rabbit, and another piece of tin “ foil, an inch square, was applied to the ab- 44 dominal muscles over the stomach, and un- “ der the integuments, by means of a wound 44 in the latter. The tin foil over the stomach “ was connected with a wire communicating “ with one end of a voltaic battery of twenty 44 plates, and occasional contacts were made “ (about three or four times a minute) between “ a wire connected with the other end of the 14 battery and the tin foil in the neck. The in- 44 fluence of the battery was sufficiently strong “ to excite slight contractions of the muscles 44- of the fore legs. This process was continued “ during five hours, at the end of which period 44 both rabbits were killed. “ On examining' the stomach of the animal, “ which had been subjected to the influence of 44 the battery, it was found much distended 44 with food, the parsley was principally in the 44 cardiac portion, and near the oesophagus it 44 appeared to have undergone no alteration ; 44 and below this it was mixed with the other 44 food in the stomach, so that no accurate ob- 44 servation could be made on it. 44 The stomach of the other rabbit was ex- 44 amined by the side of the first, so that they 44 might be compared together, and the ap- 44 pearances were precisely the same with those “ which have been just described. The con- 381 4t traction in the centre of the stomach was “ somewhat greater in the galvanised stomach “ than in the other.” The above addition to the copy of my paper, sufficiently explained the circumstances attend- ing its presentation. An account of an experi- ment, which, on a superficial view, or to those whose attention had not been particularly direct- ed to the subject, appeared to be a repetition of my galvanic experiments, affording a result in direct opposition to them, was laid up in the archives of the Royal Society ; and, without any thing having been said to me on the sub- ject, pinned to the account of my experiments ; from which it would appear that I had either been deceived in their result, or wished to deceive others. I had either been in the most unaccountable degree careless or uncandid. How far the experiment just laid before the reader warrants this conclusion, a very short comparison of it with my galvanic experiments will shew. The inference afforded by them, that when the eighth pair of nerves is divided, and the digestive power of the stomach thus wholly suspended*, it may be renewed and supported by passing a continued stream of gal- vanism through the stomach j*. Let us inquire * The muscular power of the stomach remains after the di- vision of these nerves. See page 154. t My experiments also relate to the lungs, hut the author 382 whether the experiment in question interferes with this inference. In repeating - my experi- ment, the first step of course is to divide the eighth pair of nerves. Without this the ani- mal is not in the state which affords an oppor- tunity of making the experiment at all. If the nervous influence which nature supplies is not withdrawn from the stomach, no addition made to it can be of any avail in promoting the process of digestion. This organ already possessing as much nervous influence as the fluids supplied to it require, can make use of no more. The first question then with respect to the above experiment is, — Were the nerves of the eighth pair divided previously to the ap- plication of the galvanism ? They were not. The author does not pretend to say that they were. He leaves a blank for the name of the nerves divided. He mentions none of the symptoms which 'uniformly follow the division of the eighth pair of nerves, and the state of the con- tents of the stomach, which he describes, is such as it is never found to be, after the ani- mal has survived the division of these nerves for five hours *. The remaining question is, — W as a continued stream of galvanism sent of the above experiment confines his attention to the sto- mach. a * See pages 154 and 155 of this Treatise. The contents of the stomachs of both rabbits were in a perfectly healthy state. The author of the experiment was deceived in supposing any 383 through the stomach*? It was not , for the author of the experiment states that only “ oc- “ casional contacts were made (about three or “ four times a minute) between a wire con- “ nected with the other end of the battery and “ the tin-foil in the neck.” In what essential respect then does this experiment resemble my galvanic experiments j ? My first impulse on the receipt of the copy of my paper, was to address a letter publicly to the President of the Royal Society, request- ing' an explanation of the above most extraor- dinary occurrence. On more mature reflection, however, and by the advice of a distinguished Fellow of the Royal Society, to whom I had mentioned all the circumstances, and my in- tention of publicly addressing the President, I resolved to adopt a less painful, though more tedious means of securing to my experiments the credit to which I knew them to be entitled. I therefore merely published above a year afterwards, in an Appendix to this Inquiry, the account of the experiment which I had re- part of the old and new food mixed together by a circum* stance explained above. See pages 142 and 143. * I cannot help remarking, that the introduction of the tin- foil under the skin, perhaps the most painful part of the ex- periment, is an instance of useless cruelty, the skin being a suf- ficiently good conductor of galvanism. 1 1 have not thought it necessary to mention several devia- tions from my experiments of less importance, none of which, however, were allowable. 384 ceived, without saying from what quarter I had received it, pointing out that it did not bear on the subject in question. I was con- vinced that its author, of whom I am to this moment ignorant, would see or hear of this notice of it ; and hoped, that if he could not bring himself openly to acknowledge the irre- levancy of his experiment, he would at least take some step to do away the impression it had made. It is now, however, nearly a year since the first edition of my Inquiry appeared ; and I have means of knowing that no such step has been taken. I therefore recur to my ori- ginal intention, and thus publicly address the President and Council of the Royal Society ; satisfied from the proofs of their candour which I have in other instances received, that they will do what the cause of truth requires from them, — That they will call on the author of the above experiment, either to shew in what re- spect it opposes the result of my experiments, or publicly to confess his error. THE END. Printed by W. CLOWES, Northumberland-court, Strand, London. 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