150 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 



ganglia, possess it brain. Vegetables absorb, assimilate, circu- 

 late, secrete, and in many instances contract on the application 

 of stimuli, and yet are not known to possess nerves. Muscles, 

 after the division of the nerves which connect them with the 

 brain, contract equally as before, when irritated. In animals 

 liable to torpor, the season of torpidity produces its effects equally 

 upon those muscles whose nerves have been divided, or when 

 the brain, &c. is destroyed. 



After the removal or destruction of the brain and spinal mar- 

 row in animals, the heart still continues to act and the blood to 

 circulate, provided respiration is artificially supported.* But the 

 involuntary functions are closely connected with the brain and 

 spinal marrow, for the sudden destruction of these parts or a 

 certain portion of them, puts a stop to the circulation ; f the 

 application of stimuli to them excites the action of the heart and, 

 even after its removal, of the capillaries ; J to say nothing of the 

 influence of the passions upon them. Nay more, the involun- 

 tary functions seem as dependent upon the brain and spinal mar- 

 row as they probably are upon the ganglia and gangliac nerves, 

 for the division of the par vagum, or the destruction of that part 

 of the brain with which it is connected, heavily impairs the func- 

 tions of the lungs and of the stomach ; and although the divi- 

 sion of the spinal marrow, or its nerves, prevents voluntary 

 power over the corresponding muscles, without suspending the 

 circulation, &c. in them, yet this, and what are dependent upon 

 it, nutrition and animal heat, are evidently impaired, and more, I 

 think, than can be accounted for by the mere deficiency of mus- 

 cular action. 



* Experiments, &c. by A. P. Wilson Philip, M. D. and Wm. Clift, Philos. 

 Trans. 1815. 



f- Le Gallois, Sur le Principe de la Vie ; and Wilson Philip, 1. c. 



Wilson Philip, 1. c. Probably by excessive stimulus, as the voluntary 

 muscles are afterwards insensible to stimuli, although, after a mere division of 

 their nerves, they retain their excitability. 



Lc Gallois, 1. c. and many former writers. 



