A STUDY OF FEVER. 35 



and that the effect was still more pronounced, if two of the 

 lance-shaped needles were plunged in at once, and allowed to 

 remain (in das Gehirn senkt und dieselben Hegen Idsst). 



In commenting on this, I want to call attention to the fact 

 that in some of my experiments the temperature rose at a time 

 when, so far from there being irritation of the medulla, this organ 

 was so depressed by the shock that the animal had to be kept 

 alive by artificial respiration. It is evident that in the experi- 

 ment of Bruck and Giinter, the nerve centres were actually 

 wounded, and I see no reason for disbelieving the possibility 

 of this wound affecting the conducting power of the nerve 

 fibres, especially as it is plain that the deeper and larger the 

 wound, i. e., the more numerous the needles, the greater was 

 the rise in temperature. The paralytic effect of plunging a needle 

 into a nerve centre certainly reaches, at least for a time, bej^ond 

 the obvious wound, and the effect of leaving a needle in must be 

 to increase this paralysis by pressure. The reason the rise was 

 obtained more frequently after the " stick" than after the section 

 of the medulla, seems to me to depend upon the circumstance 

 that in the former case, the vaso-motor centres were not so apt 

 to be involved as in the latter. 



It must be borne in mind that the rise in temperature which 

 follows this section of the medulla oblongata is obviously of the 

 same character as that which follows section of the cord lower 

 down. Now it is simply inconceivable, that irritation of a 

 nerve centre should give rise to the same symptom as section 

 of the nerve, which runs from the centre. If irritation of a cerebral 

 nerve centre be followed by a rise of temperature, section of the 

 spinal cord ought to be followed by a fall of temperature. As 

 the facts are, it seems to me as logical to attribute the loss of 

 voluntary movement which follows section of the medulla oblon- 

 gata to irritation, as to attribute the rise of temperature to irri- 

 tation. 



Whether we do or do not grant the existence of the inhibi- 



