138 FOURTH REPORT — 1834. 



And even after Fowler, Humboldt, and others had stated that the 

 heart may be stimulated by galvanizing its nerves, and Scarpa 

 had demonstrated that these are distributed to its substance as 

 m other muscles, Haller's theorj', though vehemently opposed 

 at first, came to be very generally received. It, however, met a 

 formidable opponent in Le Gallois, who published, in 1812, an 

 essay, containing results of numerous experiments, from which 

 it appeared that the heart's power is altogether derived from the 

 spinal cord. He found, that if a Rabbit be decapitated, the heart's 

 action is continued, artificial respiration being performed ; that 

 if a portion of the cord be destroyed, as in the lumbar region, 

 the heart is unable to support the circulation, in a Rabbit twenty 

 days old, longer than four minutes, whilst it is continued in one 

 two days old ; and that the destruction of the cervical and dor- 

 sal portions of the cord are still more suddenly fatal to the 

 heart's action. He observed, on destroying successive portions 

 of the cord, that even when the circulation is suddenly arrested 

 life ceases, on the instant, only in those parts which derive their 

 nerves from that portion of the cord which has been destroyed, 

 continuing for a time in the rest of the body ; that this time is 

 greater the nearer the animal is to the epoch of its birth, and is 

 determinate for each species. He concluded that those parts 

 which die last, on partial mutilation of the cord, die because the 

 power of the heart has been so much weakened that the circula- 

 tion through the entire arteries cannot be maintained. He hence 

 inferred, that if the work to be performed by the heart were 

 diminished in proportion as its power was lost, the circulation 

 might be supported. He found, accordingly, that if the aorta 

 was tied opposite to the part of the cord to be destroyed, the 

 circulation was continued through the remaining portion of the 

 trunk in connexion with the heart. His general conclusions 

 were, that the heart has no intrinsic power, but that it derives 

 its power from every part of the spinal cord ; that each part of 

 the body is animated by that part of the cord from which its 

 nerves arise ; that the spnpathetic system of nerves has its ori- 

 gin in the spinal cord, and not in the ganglia, its office being to 

 bring the parts to which it is distributed M'ithin the influence of 

 the whole nervous power of the cord ; that the motions of the 

 heart which are visible after excision from the body, are similar 

 to those which may be excited in other muscles after they have 

 been for some time dead, and are merely cadaveric phenomena. 

 In 1818, Dr. Wilson Philip published his essay on the laws of 

 the vital functions, and reviewed Le Gallois' experiments and 

 observations*. By unexceptionable experiments he showed, 

 * The first experiments of Dr. Philip are in the Phil. Trans, for 1815. 



