On the Reflex Function of the Spinal Marro%\ .51 



This formula I do not bring forward as absolutely fixed, but 

 as rendered extremely probable by the analyses detailed above, 

 and by the reactions which are observed in the decomposition 

 of this body by bases, a subject to which I shall recur in an- 

 other series of these researches. 



[To be continued.] 



XIII. On Professor Miiller's Account of the Reflex Func- 

 tion of the Spinal Marrow*. Communicated by Marshall 

 Hall, M,D., F.R.S,, S^c. 



^INCE the publication of my Memoir on the Reflex Func- 

 ^ tion of the Medulla Oblongata and Medulla Spinalis, in- 

 serted in the Transactions of the Royal Society for 1833, I 

 have been greatly gratified to find that Prof Mialier, the justly 

 celebrated physiologist of Berlin, had been led, entirely inde- 

 pendently of me, into the same path of investigation, — to 

 nearly similar results, — and even to the adoption of the same 

 designation f for the special function of the spinal marrow 

 which is the subject of my inquiries. 



Prof Miiller states, as will appear from the paragraph of 

 which, by the kindness of Mr. Paget, I am enabled to send a 

 translation, that the first part of his Handbuch, containing 

 the principles of the reflex function, was published in the 

 spring of 1833, the very year in which my paper was published 

 in the Philosophical Transactions];. 1 had, however, read a 

 short account of the same principle of action in the spinal mar- 

 row, to the Zoological Society, the year previously, viz. 1832, 

 which was published in the " Proceedings of the Committee," 

 and referred to in theLond.&Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol.ii. p.477; 

 so that the question of priority of publication is decidedly in 

 my favour. At the same time, the almost perfect coincidence 

 in our observations and experiments, and in our conclusions 

 from them, is at once most remarkable and satisfactory. The 

 name of Prof. Miiller will not fail to give importance to the in- 

 quiry ; and, for my part, I recall to mind, with pleasure, the 

 remark of Sir Humphry Davy, that " we may generally dis- 

 cover how our labours will be appreciated eventually, from 

 the opinion of contemporary foreigners, who being unbiassed 

 by circumstances of personality, will reduce every object to 

 its just proportions and value." 



* Handbuch der Physiologic. 



t Prof. Miiller goes further. He says — "The spinal marrow has the pro- 

 perty of reflecting sensorial impressions made upon the sentient nerves, to 

 the motor nerves. // is a rejlector,'^ &c. (Opus cit., p. 789.) 



t [A notice of the reading of Dr. Hall's paper before the Royal Society 

 was given in Lond. & Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol. iii. p. 460. — Edit,] 



H2 



