ON THE TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD. 689 



bonic acid are then at their maximum ; the blood of the veins is ex- 

 tremely dark the muscle is growing and acting both at once. 



These are modifications which the muscular fibre undergoes during 

 life. When death occurs and the blood is no longer renewed, mus- 

 cular irritability disappears after a time which varies, and in an order 

 which is fixed. The left ventricle of the heart first ceases to be ex- 

 citable, then the intestine, the bladder, the iris, the muscles of animal 

 life ; the right auricle of the heart dies last ; it is the ultimum moriens. 

 The organic matter making up what is called the flesh decomposes, 

 and is thenceforth governed entirely by chemical forces. The juices 

 it contains become acid, coagulations take place, and then comes on 

 the condition called by the name of corpse-like rigidity. Thus 

 changed, the muscle is no longer excitable ; but, if it is subjected at 

 this instant to a current of arterial blood, it immediately revives, 

 rigidity disappears, the muscle-fluids regain their former composition, 

 and the individual activity of the fibre displays itself anew. Experi- 

 ments establishing this great fact have been tried, not only on 

 animals, but also on man even, and under circumstances that present 

 some difficulty in the recital ; the dramatic side of the subject is vivid 

 enough to allow of a strictly scientific narration by itself. We will 

 relate the transfusions performed by Brown-Sequard on two persons 

 beheaded at Paris in June and July, 1851. 



The first experiment was tried on a man aged twenty. He was be- 

 headed at eight o'clock in the morning ; eleven hours later all trace 

 of irritability had disappeared from most of the muscles of the body. 

 Injection into the muscles was begun at ten minutes past nine in the 

 evening ; the quantity of blood (which the operator took from his 

 own veins) was enough for a limited part of the body ; he therefore 

 confined his experiment to the hand. Injection was made by the 

 artery in which the pulse is usually sought, a little above the wrist, 

 and, of course, in the direction of the fingers ; it was urged at first 

 quite fast, then slowly. The blood which went in bright colored, 

 passed out dark from the vein, as is the case in life. The operation 

 continued thirty-five minutes, and, ten minutes after that time, irri- 

 tability had returned ; a movement in the muscles of the hand could 

 be artificially excited. 



With the second subject, injection of the blood of a healthy dog 

 was made ; the blood had been first deprived of its coagulable matter, 

 and beaten up in the air ; there was about a pound of it. The subject 

 was a strong man, forty years old. Death had occurred at eight 

 o'clock in the morning ; at twenty-five minutes past ten in the evening 

 rigidity was complete, without a trace of contractility under the in- 

 fluence of stimulus. The arm was amputated, and at twenty minutes 

 past eleven Brown-Sequard effected injection by the brachial artery. 

 The skin at first took a livid color, but very soon the rpots of the hair 

 grew erect, giving the effect of goose-flesh, as it is called. This arti- 

 tol. 11. 44 



