12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



infant which lived eighteen hours. Respiration was established, but 

 the child did not cry. Nevertheless, it was not insensible. Light 

 impressed the eyes, for the pupils acted. A bitter juice put into the 

 mouth was immediately rejected. Loud noises caused movements of 

 the body. On post-tnorte^n examination, there was found no vestige 

 of either cerebrum or cerebellum, but the medulla oblongata and pons 

 Varolii existed. There were no olfactory nerves ; the optic nerves 

 were atrophied, and the third and fourth j)airs were wanting ; all the 

 other cranial nerves were present. 



Ollivier d'Angers describes a monster of the female sex which 

 lived twenty hours. It cried, and could suck and swallow. There 

 was no brain, but the spinal cord and medulla oblongata were well 

 developed. 



Saviard relates the particulars of a case in which there were no 

 cerebrum, cerebellum, or any other intracranial ganglion. The spinal 

 cord began as a little red tumor on a level with the foramen magnum. 

 Yet this being opened and shut its eyes, cried, sucked, and even ate 

 broth. It lived four days. 



Mr. Lawrence has published the details of a very interesting case 

 in which there was no brain. But the excito-motory functions were 

 well performed. The child moved briskly and gave evidence of feel- 

 ing pain. Its breathing and temperature were natural, and it took 

 food. Movements such as these do not afford evidence of a very high 

 degree of intellect, but they are precisely such as are performed by all 

 new-born infants possessed of brains. If they are not indicative of 

 the existence of mind, we must deny this force to all human beings 

 on their entrance into the world. 



But we are not obliged to rest on the phenomena afforded by 

 anencephalic monsters for all the evidence that the spinal cord of man 

 is a center of perception and volition. We have only to observe the 

 manifestations of its action which are of daily occurrence in our own 

 persons. And in bringing them to your notice I shall quote from a 

 little work on " Sleep and its Derangements," which I wrote a few 

 years ago : 



" If an individual engaged in reading a book allows his mind to be 

 diverted to some other subject than that of which he is reading, he 

 continues to see the words, which, however, make no impression on 

 his brain, and he turns over the leaf whenever he reaches the bottom 

 of the page, with as much regularity as though he comprehended every 

 word he had read. He suddenly, perhaps, brings back his mind to the 

 subject of his book, and then he finds that he has perused several pages 

 without having received the slightest idea of their contents. 



" Again, when, for instance, we are walking in the street and think- 

 ing of some engrossing circumstance, we turn the right corner and 

 find ourselves where we intended to go, without being able to recall 

 any of the events connected with the act of getting there." 



