174 REPORT—1840. 
and other gentlemen, private friends of the Reporter, and the 
last four-named gentlemen his colleagues in the medical staff 
of the St. Marylebone Infirmary. 
The experiments were performed in a convenient locality 
immediately adjoining to the Marylebone Infirmary, and prin- 
cipally on donkey colts of a few months old. In the latter 
part of the series other animals, and especially dogs, were 
used, partly for economy, and in order that the limited pecu- 
niary resources of the Committee might not be prematurely 
exhausted, and partly because certain experiments contem- 
plated were expected to prove more easily and decisively 
practicable on the larger heart of the ass than on any smaller, 
such as that of the dog; and that, in any event, it was de- 
sirable to extend the range of observation, as far as practi- 
cable, over the animal scale. 
The mode of preparation was in all cases nearly the same. 
In almost every case sensibility was withdrawn as completely 
as was practicable by one method or the other. In donkeys 
we availed ourselves of the stupefying property of the woorara 
poison, for a packet of which the Reporter had been indebted, 
since 1838, to the kindness of Sir B.C. Brodie, Bart. The woo- 
rara was brought into operation by injecting a couple of grains 
of it, partly dissolved, partly suspended in water, into the exter- 
nal jugular vein, as practised by Mr. Mayo in an experiment 
of Dr. Hope’s, and the injection was usually followed in a 
very few minutes by complete insensibility. In the smaller 
animals prussic acid was used in several instances; and ina few 
cases the subject was stunned by a blow on the head. Artificial 
breathing was used in every warm-blooded subject, by means 
of a bellows and long flexible tube kept loose in the trachea. 
The chest was opened nearly as directed by Galen*, and as 
practised by former Committees ; five or six ribs were sepa- 
rated from the sternum and broken near the articulations, and 
bent back over the vertebra. In every case, whether during 
the preparation or subsequent observation, all convenient 
means were used, as advised by Galen}, to prevent or lessen 
hemorrhage, in order to avoid as much as possible the 
anomalous modes of action attending extreme vascular deple- 
tion, and to prolong the opportunities of observation and 
experiment. 
The observations about to be detailed consist partly of 
experiments in continuation of the inquiries of former Com- 
mittees, and partly of experiments made with a view to decide 
* De Admin. Anat. |. vii. c. 12. + Loc. cit. 
