G. NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 293 



A further experiment by these gentlemen was in reference 

 to albumen which has been diluted with ten to fifteen times 

 its volume of distilled water. In this condition it is not co- 

 agulable, as the greater part of the carbonic acid becomes 

 disengaged. If, now, the solution be raised to 86 Fahr.,and 

 traversed by a current of carbonic acid gas, the albuminoid 

 substance becomes completely precipitated. The authors 

 suggest a method by which albumen that has once been co- 

 agulated by heat or by an acid may possibly be restored to 

 a soluble condition. 6 J?, September 29, 1873, 706. 



INFLUENCE OF ELECTRIC STIMULATION ON THE BRAIN AND 



SPINAL CORD. 



Dr. Fender, of King's College, London, has lately prose- 

 cuted sundry inquiries into the influence of electric stimula- 

 tion upon the brain and spinal cord, and in a paper recently 

 published gives certain conclusions at which he has arrived, 

 which, although imperfect, as he admits, he considers worthy 

 of being laid before the world, and subjected to a thorough 

 criticism by other experimenters. They are as follows: 



1. The anterior portions of the cerebral hemispheres are 

 the chief centres of voluntary motion, and of the active out- 

 ward manifestation of intelligence. 



2. The individual convolutions are separate and distinct 

 centres, and in certain definite groups of convolutions (to 

 some extent indicated by the researches of Fritsch and Hit- 

 zig), and in corresponding regions of non-convoluted brains, 

 are localized the centres for the various movements of the 

 eyelids, the face, the mouth and tongue, the ear, the neck, the 

 hand, foot, and tail. Striking differences, corresponding with 

 the habits of the animal, are to be found in the differentiation 

 of the centres. Thus the centres for the tail in dogs, the paw 

 in cats, and the lips and mouth in rabbits, are highly differ- 

 entiated and pronounced. 



3. The action of the hemispheres is in general crossed, but 

 certain movements of the mouth, tongue, and neck are bi- 

 laterally co-ordinated from each cerebral hemisphere. 



4. The proximate causes of the different epilepsies are, as 

 Dr. Hughlings-Jaekson supposes, discharging lesions of the 

 different centres in the cerebral hemispheres. The affection 

 may be limited artificially to one muscle or group of muscles, 



