276 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. . 



about the height of the nipple, with the point of a scalpel, over a space 

 of nearly four inches, without making any pressure on the muscles 

 lying beneath. We immediately saw the great pectoral muscle, then 

 the biceps, then the anterior brachial, successively and quickly con- 

 tract. The result was a movement of approach of the whole arm tow- 

 ard the trunk, with rotation inward of the limb, and half flexion of 

 the forearm upon the arm, a true defensive movement, which threw the 

 hand forward toward the chest as far as the pit of the stomach." 



These spontaneous exhibitions of life in a corpse are trifles com- 

 pared with those excited by means of certain stimulants, particularly 

 of electricity. Aldini, in 1802, subjected two criminals, beheaded at 

 Bologna, to the action of a powerful battery. Influenced by the cur- 

 rent, the facial muscles contracted, producing the effect of horrid 

 grimaces. All the limbs were seized with convulsive movements ; the 

 bodies seemed to feel the stir of resurrection, and to make efforts to 

 rise. The springs of the system retained the power of answering the 

 electric stimulus for several hours after beheading. A few years later, 

 at Glasgow, Ure made some equally noted experiments on the body 

 of a criminal that had remained more than an hour hanging on the 

 gallows. One of the poles of a battery of TOO pairs having been con- 

 nected with the spinal marrow below the nape of the neck, and the 

 other brought in contact with the heel, the leg, before bent back on 

 itself, was thrust violently forward, almost throwing down one of the 

 assistants, who had hard work to keep it in place. When one of the 

 poles was placed on the seventh rib, and the other on one of the nerves 

 of the neck, the chest rose and fell, and the abdomen repeated the bike 

 movement, as takes place in respiration. On touching a nerve of the 

 eyebrow at the same time with the head, the facial muscles contracted. 

 " Wrath, terror, despair, anguish, and frightful grins, blended in hor- 

 rible expression on the assassin's countenance." 



The most remarkable instance of a momentary reappearance of 

 vital properties, not in the whole organism, but in the head alone, is 

 the famous experiment suggested by Legallois, and carried out for the 

 first time in 1858 by M. Brown- Sequard. This skilful physiologist 

 beheads a dog, taking pains to make the section below the point at 

 which the vertebral arteries enter their bony sheath. Ten minutes 

 afterward he sends the galvanic current into the different parts of the 

 head thus severed from its body, without producing any resuli, of 

 movement. He then fits to the four arteries, the extremities of which 

 appear in the cutting of the neck, little pipes connected by tubes with 

 a reservoir full of fresh oxygenated blood, and guides the injection of 

 this blood into the vessels of the brain. Immediately irregular mo- 

 tions of the eyes and the facial muscles occur, succeeded by the ap- 

 pearance of regular harmonious contractions, seeming to be prompted 

 by the will. The head has regained life. The motions continue to be 

 performed during a quarter of an hour, while the injection of blood 



