Nerve Derangements Brown-S6guard. 



plot ply from the spinal cord by tho dissection of tlio 

 diaphragmatic nerves, and we may SPO tno diaphragm 

 continuing to art perfectly in a rhythmical way. We sec 

 It even when \\e have rendered the warm blooded 

 animal on which wo operate almost cold-blooded by 

 diminidhhig tho tomperaiuro constantly. The dia- 

 piiragm, therefore, possesses tho power in itself of 

 rliylliuiK'al mo vein on Is. 



MfSCl l.AU MOVEMENTS AFTER DEATH. 



What is ilio duration ot those rhythmical movements 

 when the parts are SP para tod from the body? It has 

 been found that 48 hours after tlie heart has been sep- 

 arated from the ehesc of a dog it continued to beat. 

 There is recorded the case of a man at Rouen in whom 

 the heart was found to beat for 06 hoars after tho dcatli 

 of the body by decapitation. There is therefore a po&- 

 Bioilit.v of long persistence of life in those organs. And 

 I daresay that the great cause why we see those organs 

 stop at deuthso quickly, is that the phenomena of arrest 

 of their activity have taken place at the time of death. 



There are many other parts that possess rhythmical 

 movements; the great vessels near the heart; the 

 arteries of the heart in certain animals, as Prof. Shift" 

 has discovered; the vessels of the wings of the bat, as 

 Wliarton Jones has discovered, and the excretory 

 canals of either the liver, or the pancreas, or kidneys in 

 some annuals. Then also certain parts of the digestive 

 apparatus of birds, sep-irated from the bodv, may 

 coutiuue to act rhythmically. Indeed, I have found that 

 every muscle iu our system, as well as in animals, can 

 in certain circumstances, have perfect rhythmical move- 

 ments; so that these regular movements do not dep?nd 

 on a peculiar organization belonging either to the heart 

 or to the dwphvagm. It is a property which every 

 contractile tissue possesses, anil which shows itself only 

 in certain circumstances different from the ordinary 

 circumstances ol life. 



The uixt point I shall mention is that movements 

 voluntary in appearar.ee can exist without nerve force. 

 In that respect a very singular fact has come to my 

 knowledge iu a positive way. I was called once to see 

 a patient who was indeed no more a patient; he had 

 died beiore I reached him. I was told that he was 

 making certain movements, and his family and friends 

 all thouirht he was alive. I examined him and found 

 that he was certainly dead without any chance of re- 

 turning to life, at least according to our very limited 

 knowledge. I found that he was performing slowly 

 movements that he had been performing with great 

 vigor before I came. He would lift up his two arms at 

 full length above his face, knit the flngfrs together 

 as iu the attitude of prayer, then drop the arms 

 again and separate them. The movements were 

 repeated a good many times with less and 

 less force, until at last they ceased. These 

 singular movements, to persons not knowing what may 

 take place in the humau body after death, must certainly 

 have looked as if the will-power had been directing 

 them. Evidently there was no such thing there. The 

 heart h. ul stopped beating; the respiration had ceased 

 for a longtime. Tho appearance of the eyes a;id of the 

 other parts of the body were those that we observe in 

 death. lucre was no trace of sensibility anywhere; no 

 reaction to the operation of galvanism or burning any- 

 where, as 1 had to make use of these means to satisfy 

 the family. A needle was pushed into the heart, as 

 there was no clanger from this experiment, a certain 

 physiologist having, lor the mere sake of showing 

 what the Japanese had done that way, intro- 

 duced one many times into his heart. The needle 



introduced showed that tLe heart of my cholera patient 

 did not beat. But what I did not do, tho proof I did not 

 have in this case, Dr. Bennett Dowlerof New-Orleans 

 lias given. From patients who died of yellow fever or 

 cholera and it is chieilv in those cases that involuntary 

 movements resembling voluntary ones occur after 

 death Dr. Dowler has amputated limbs. It was a bold 

 undertaking ; but Dr. Dowlcr has done it, and tho limbs 

 amputated continued to move alter having been sep- 

 arated from tho nervous centers; so that if tnere was 

 nerve force actine;, then it was nerve force existing iu 

 trunks or nerves and not tho nerve force that comes 

 from tho will. Those movements, I repeat, resemble 

 voluntary movements. 



EXTRAORDINARY FEATS CAUSED BY DISEASE. 



There are movements which of course require more 

 force, but which resemble those movements in not being 

 directed by the will. The fleld of pathology is indeed 

 very rich iu cases in which all sorts of movements re- 

 sembling voluntary movements are made by patients 

 who, however, are not trying to perform those move- 

 ments. There is one case especially of a young lady in 

 Paris who was attacked with ecstacies every Sunday, 

 and who performed a feat tho thousandth part of which 

 not one among you could perform unless you were dis- 

 eased like her. Every Sunday at 10 o'clock the youyg 

 lady ascended a bed, and putting her feet on the top of 

 the ectge or bor ler of the bed, took an attitude of prayer 

 and began to address prayers to the Virgin Mary. She 

 continued in that attitude, fixed like a statue, except that 

 her chest continued to move and her heart to beat,audthe 

 lips were giving utterauce to sound. All the other parts 

 of the body were absolutely motionless. This was a feat 

 that, you could not perform on level ground. Standing 

 rigidly on tip-toe, even without shoes, is an utter impos- 

 sibility, beyond a short time. I ventured to try my own 

 power on the border of that bed, and fell immediately. 

 [Laughter. | I was not ready to try it again, as there 

 was no doubt that the thing was impossible. I had beeu 

 called by the agent of police to see whether there 

 was disease there, or whether it was a false pretense to 

 make money, as the family of the girl was poor, and 

 many came and paid for tho privilege of witnessing her 

 attitude in prayer. It was clear that there was disease. 

 I made an experiment which proved it. 



There are other movements which are performed 

 without the will. Some of these are very singular. 

 Sometimes it is a movement forward, sometimes it Is a 

 movement backward as fast as possible; then move- 

 ments sideways, or a movement like a horse in a circus, 

 or a simple rotation executed on the same place on the 

 feet. What may surprise nia-ny persons, there are two 

 cases to my knowledge in which these rotary move- 

 ments, instead of being performed as I just performed 

 them, were performed with the head ou the ground. 

 [Laughter.] The feet were against the wall, without 

 which, of course, this action would be impossible. The 

 patient turned with a rapidity that was wonderful. No 

 person with will-power could have done it. The head 

 spun around as if it were a top. 



In another case, I saw a most beautiful Irish girl who 

 had a blow on the head and who had a rotary movement 

 ou that accouut. She knew well what was the matter 

 with her, and bad come to be able to prevent any bad 

 effect of it. If she wanted to go in a contrary direction 

 she turned herself in a direction almost at right angles 

 to it, and the irregularity of her movement brought her 

 to the right place. [Laughter.! She knew the amount of 

 her rotation, her deviation from a straight line, and cal- 

 culated accordingly. So when she went along the stree 



