34 THE TONER LECTURES. 



increase of the chemical movements of the bod}^. In the second 

 place the temperature rose in my experiments during every 

 imaginable condition of the respiratory movements. In one 

 instance these were so far abolished that life had to be sustained 

 for a time by alternately squeezing the chest and allowing it to 

 dilate; at another time the breathing was natural ; in another 

 case it was hurried. Under all circumstances the bodily heat 

 steadily increased. 



The fever then which follows separation of the medulla from 

 the pons is independent of the circulation and the respiration. 

 I believe with Tscheschichin that it must be due to the removal 

 of the influence of some repressive force, and that there must be 

 in the pons or above it a nerve centre whose function it is to 

 inhibit or repress the chemical movements of the body, i. e., the 

 production of animal heat. 



It certainly is an accepted deduction in physiology that section 

 of a nerve induces abolition of function, and that the symp- 

 toms which follow such section are paralytic in their nature. 

 Applying this obvious axiom or rule to this case, it is plain 

 that the rise of temperature is owing to a paralysis, and that 

 this paralysis must be of something which keeps down tempe- 

 rature. It would seem hardly necessary to discuss this point 

 in detail, had it not been asserted (Pfluger^s Archiv, Bd. iii. p. 

 581), that the rise of temperature which follows section of the 

 medulla at the border of the pons is due to an irritation of the 

 medulla. Heidenhain states that he was led to this conclu- 

 sion by noting that the rabbits, upon which Bruck and Giinter 

 experimented, showed symptoms of irritation of the medulla in 

 that their breathing was exceedingly rapid. Acthig upon this, 

 he suggested that the effect of puncture should be tried, and 

 accordingly Bruck and Giinter instituted such experiments. 

 The temperature rose more uniformly than in the previous 

 experiments in which section was practised. It was found that 

 two or more punctures were more effectual than a single one, 



