Indirect Nerve Force Urown-Scquard. 



21 



tance dcnvmds; but unfortnnatoly the labor of research 

 has been loft to myself up tojthis time. Surgeons every 

 day have to deal with such oases, and it is a great pity 

 that more workers tli;in an old m m liko myself do riot 

 study tlic subject. In many instances, uurter a prick or 

 certain injuries of the nervous system, there is a cessa- 

 tion and sometimes a complete want of that Interchange 

 between tissues and blood wliieh we call nutrition. The 

 circulation, though diminished, may remain pretty 

 active; but notwithstanding the p.ToisOeuce also of 

 respiration, nut so perfect as in health, though cer- 

 tainly iiuHe enougn, we might stippo-e, to produce a fair 

 condition of the circulation. But notwithstanding the, 

 persistence of these two functions of circulation and 

 respiration, we dud that the blood iu the veins is pretty 

 much like the blood in the arteries. The change of 

 color which we know to take place through nutrition, 

 does not occur, and the blood returns to the heart prelty 

 much as it has been sent out. It is red iu the veins and 

 the temperature of the body has sensibly dimin- 

 ished, owing to the lack of the produc- 

 tion of heat. The interchange between tissues 

 and blood has ceased. Is this owing, as the 

 other phenomena of arrest of which I have spoken, to 

 the cessation of the activity of certain cells 1 It is a 

 Question yet to be decided. It is very likely that it is. We 

 tind these cells ot gray matter acting on the various parts 

 la which there is a function for the persist?. ucs of life; 

 they are pretty well scattered everywhere. My friend 

 Prof. Lister of Glasgow has poiutei out that almost 

 everywhere, even in the walls of blood vessels, he has 

 found cells of gray matter. Wo may suppose that the 

 nrrcst of activity that takes place is due to a stoppage 

 of the activity of those cells. Surgeons, as I have inti- 

 mated, have very frequently to deal with conditions of 

 arrest which are very serious:. Under an emotion, or 

 under a wound, under a physical or mental shock, a man 

 may fall down, having the four kinds of arrest of which 

 I have spoken. That is, an arrest or diminution 

 of the heart's action; of respiration ; of consciousness, 

 and arrest of that interciiange between tissues and blood 

 constituting nutrition. Those kinds of arrest may and 

 do co-exist generally. The degree in which they appeal- 

 varies; but almost always in the state which we call 

 collapse, those four things are to be observed. I may say 

 that, strang? as it may seem to the medical gentlemen 

 present here tnis evening, one of the most dangerous 

 of those is the cessation of that interchange between 

 tissues and blood. Without any doubt, the cessation of 

 the heart's action will kill after a time; but not so 

 promptly as a cessation of what we call nutrition, which 

 is really life. There are various facts relative to this. 



CURIOUS EXPERIMENTS HOW HORSES ARE QUIETEI>. 



According to a discovery made by Prof. Sluff of 

 Florence a discovery which has been pushed beyond 

 him by many others we can very readily produce these 

 conditions. He found that it was quite enough to touch 

 the nostrils, as I do mine, simply passing the finger 

 along the sides of the nose, to stop the activity or the 

 heart and respiration, and stop consciousness in u 

 measure. He did not find, but left another to find it, that 

 interchange between tissues and blood is also stopped. 

 It is well known now that most of those men who suc- 

 ceed In quieting violent horses, put their fingers to that 

 part, and sometimes inside the uares. Merely touching 

 these parts may produce some effect; pressing hard 

 upon them has far more effect. It is not essential that 

 the application be made there, as a pressure of the lip 

 may produce the same thing. In some animals, rabbits 

 and guinea pigs, if we pass needles into their chest and 



heart, so as to judge of respiration and circulation, wo 

 find that the needles stop altogether as we press the lips 

 or part of the chock. It is not that the poor creature is 

 fricrhtened, as when we have deprived them partly of 

 their consciousness, or almost altogether, bv the use of 

 chloroform, the same phenomena occur. There is a very 

 curious fact mentioned by Catlin, who traveled in the 

 West, and wrote two volumes on the Indians. Ho states 

 that the calves of the buffalo. It they aro caught, and 

 the air from the lungs of a man is strongly breathed 

 into their nostrils, will become so fascinated by that 

 peculiar influence that they will run after the horse of 

 the hunter, and follow him five or six miles. It is said, 

 and Mr. Catliu also alarms it, that in Texas, or in other 

 parts of the country where there are wild horses taken 

 by the lasso, if the hunter succeeds in taking hold 

 of their nostrils, and then forcibly expels air from hia 

 lungs into the nostrils of the horse, ho will follow him 

 anywhere, and become perfectly tame. These facts do- 

 serve to be studied. I have heard that when Mr. Rarey 

 acted so powerfully on very violent horses, both iu this 

 country and in Europe, he had something to do with 

 their nostrils also. What he did, however, he kept in a 

 great measure secret. That part of the system, at any 

 rate, Las a great deal to do iu diminishing the activity 

 of the principal organs. It is very natural, therefore, 

 that such a power should be acquired by one who has 

 done such a thing to an animal as intelligent as the 

 horse. 



There are other facts of very great importance. Those 

 persons who did me the honor to follow the lectures I 

 delivered here last year know somewhat of my views in 

 regard to paralysis. I will not enter at lentrth on that, 

 subject, but I may say that paralysis, amesthesia, amau- 

 rosis, deafness, the loss of any of our souses, the loss of 

 any of the powers of the mind or body, can be produced 

 by a mechanism just similar to that which we know to 

 exist when the par vagum is galvanized so as to arrest 

 the heart's action. I will mention a number of facts 

 which show that paralysis, which may appear suddenly, 

 can also disappear suddenly ; and if it can fMsappear 

 suddenly after the cause of irritation has ceased, it is 

 clear that it was that excitation which produced it. 

 Tuere are many cases on record showing that the mus- 

 cles, of the eye, for instance, or the muscles of the face can 

 lose power under neuralgia, but not a neuralgia at the 

 very place where the muscle that is paralyzed is found. 

 Sometimes the neuralgia is ou the other side. Sometimes 

 the neuralgia is in the arm, and it will be a muscle of 

 the face that is paralyzed. But if you cure the neural- 

 gia then the paralysis disappears. In the same way au 

 irritation of the nerves of the teeth can be a cause of 

 paral3'sis. There are instances of the paralysis of tne 

 two lower limbs, as Castle of New-York has shown, that 

 were cured by the extraction of decayed teeth. 



Many other cases of irritation of a nerve can produce 

 paralysis. A small worm iu the bowels, producing no 

 pain, may cause paralysis. If the worm is expelled the 

 par.il.ysis may disappear iu an instant. A worm may 

 produce, as I have seen in two cases, a complete hemi- 

 plegia, or paralysis of the whole of one side of the body, 

 aud as soon as the worms were expelled the patients 

 were well. Therefore what mav seem a trifling cause 

 of irritation of a nerve in any part of the system may 

 produce a paralysis. In experiments on animals we 

 find this better illustrated. The posterior columns of 

 the spinal cord are perfectly well known now. not to 

 serve eithT for voluntary motion or for the transmis- 

 sion of sensitive impressions to the sensoria. But if wo 

 lay hare the spinal cord and merely prick the posterior 



