678 FUNCTIONS OF THE CEREBRO -SPINAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



preted with the cautions formerly referred to, is found on the whole to co- 

 incide with that obtained from experiment. In the first place, it fully sup- 

 ports the conclusion, that the Cerebellum is not in any way the instrument 

 of psychical operations. Inflammation of the membranes covering it, if con- 

 fined to that part, does not produce delirium; and its almost complete de- 

 struction by gradual softening does not appear necessarily to involve loss of 

 intellectual power. "But," remarks Andral, "whilst the changes of intelli- 

 gence were variable, inconstant, and of little importance, the lesions of mo- 

 tion, on the contrary, were observed in all the cases [of softening] except one; 

 and in this it is not quite certain that motion was not interfered with." Yet 

 the result of Audral's analysis of as many as ninety-three cases of disease of 

 the Cerebellum, 1 is not favorable to the doctrine to w r hich the results of ex- 

 periments seem to point: but, as it has been justly remarked by Longet, the 

 effects of the disease are only partly comparable to those of experiment; since 

 in a large proportion of chronic disorders, the changes consist in the forma- 

 tion of a new product, such as a tubercular or cancerous deposit, or a cyst of 

 some kind, the gradual development of which is quite consistent with the 

 continued functional activity of the organ, as we see by parallel phenomena 

 elsewhere; whilst in those instances in which haemorrhage occurs, this usually 

 occasions either complete apoplexy or local paralysis, by its effects upon other 

 organs. Still, several cases of chronic disease of the Cerebellum have been 

 observed, in which unsteadiness of gait, without paralysis, or only giving 

 place to paralysis at last on the occurrence of haemorrhage, was a very 

 marked symptom ; 2 and these afford a strong confirmation of the doctrine 

 based on the experimental researches already referred to. In a few cases in 

 which both lobes of the Cerebellum have been seriously affected, the tend- 

 ency to retrograde movement has been observed; and instances are also on 

 record, of the occurrence of rotatory movement, which has been found to be 

 connected with lesion of the Crus Cerebelli on the same side. 3 So far as 

 they can be relied on, therefore, the results of the three methods of investi- 

 gation bear a very close correspondence; and it can scarcely be doubted that 

 they afford us a near approximation to truth. 



551. It must not be allowed to pass unnoticed, that some Physiologists 

 (as Foville, Pinel-Graudchamp, and Duges) have regarded the Cerebellum 

 as the centre of common Sensation ; chiefly on the ground of its connection 

 with the posterior columns of the Spinal Cord and of the manifestations of 

 pain which are called forth by touching the restiform columns. Although 

 these facts may lead us to admit that the Cerebellum is connected with the 

 sensorial centres, and even that it is itself a seat of sensibility, yet it is im- 

 possible to regard it as the exclusive seat of sensibility, consistently with the 

 facts with which experiment and pathological observation supply us ; since 

 neither the removal of the entire organ by operation, nor its complete de- 

 struction by disease, 4 has been found to involve any loss of the ordinary sen- 



1 See his Clinique Medicale, 2eme edit., torn, v, p. 735. 



Two such cases lire recorded by Mr. Dunn in the Med.-Chir. Trans., vol. xxxii, 

 and another by Dr. Cowan in the Prov. Mod. and >Surg. Journ., April 10th, 1845; 

 and (In- Author has !,ccn made acquainted with several others, by gentlemen under 

 whose cognizance they have fallen. See also various papers by Hughlings Jackson 

 in M'',l. Times and Gazette. 



* A collection of such cases has been made by Dr. Paget, in his paper on Morbid 

 Rhythmical Movements, in the Edinb Mod and Surg. Journal, 1847, vol. Ixvii. 

 A case once fell within the Author's knowledge, in which a state of this kind, that 

 lasted for some hours, appeared to depend upon an attack of Indigestion ; the symp- 

 toms being completely relieved by vomiting, and no further indication of Encephalic 

 di.-onler manifesting it-elf. 



4 See the well-known euse recorded by Combetti, in the Revue Medicale, t. ii, p. 57. 



