174 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BRAIN 



Such disturbances also show themselves in the 

 limbs. The animal often staggers about like an in- 

 toxicated person and finds difficulty in keeping itself 

 on its legs. All these peculiarities perhaps point ul- 

 timately to a decrease in the tension of the skeletal 

 muscles. The measured movements of the normal 

 animal are only possible if the tension of the antag- 

 onistic muscles is so great that excessive movements 

 cannot take place. But if the muscles of the spinal 

 column are relaxed in the dog without the cerebellum, 

 as has been maintained (and apparently with good 

 reason), every intended movement can go wide of its 

 aim. 



According to the results of Luciani's numerous 

 experiments, weakness or relaxation of the muscles 

 seems to form the most constant factor in the effects of 

 operations on the cerebellum. The affected groups 

 of muscles, however, seem to vary with the position 

 of the part of the cerebellum which is destroyed. 

 Flourens, who attributed special functions to each sec- 

 tion of the brain, maintained that the cerebellum was 

 the general centre of coordination, because lesions of 

 the cerebellum bring about the above-mentioned dis- 

 turbances. Luciani (2) has shown, however, that 

 some of the dogs that had lost the cerebellum were 

 still able to perform coordinated swimming motions 

 in the water and even coordinated walking motions. 

 The weakness of all or of certain groups of muscles 

 may lead to ataxic disturbances, but in some cases 

 these may be very slight. Thus we see that Flourens's 



