95:^ 



thai is caused bv a defioienc}' of oxyoen, is consequenlly an indispen- 

 sable condition for rigor mortis of the muscles, Hermann showed 

 moreover that the process of rigor mortis is accelerated from the 

 central nervous system, whereas Ewat-d ascribed this accelerating 

 intliience to the labyrinth. 



Last year 1 established, that, both for warm- and cold-blooded 

 animals, the tonus of the skeleton-muscles is entertained by impulses 

 reaching the muscles along the etferent, thoracal autonomical nerve- 

 tracks ^). I demonstrated this by the section of the Rami communi- 

 cantes on one side, after which the muscles of the same side become 

 atonic. In this way 1 could fully ascertain, by a physiological ex- 

 periment, the double innervation established by Bokkk") on account 

 of morphological investigations, and, at the same time, I could 

 establish the signification, which autonomic innervation has on the 

 transversally striped muscles. 



In the many operations that I made on frogs, I was struck by 

 the fact that, after death, the hind-leg of the operated side was still 

 supple, when the other hind-leg was already quite stifT. So on 

 January the 13''' 1 cut the right Rami communicantis and the 

 sympathetic chain of a frog as high as possible. The next afternoon 

 at 6 o'clock the frog was no longer very active. On the 15^'' of 

 January I found it dead, all limbs were supple. Now I laid down 

 the frog with both hind-legs flexed in the same way. At 4 o'clock 

 of the afternoon the right fore- and hind-legs are still quite supple. 

 The left hind-leg however is, both in hip- and knee-joint, stiff in 

 flexed position with strengthened dorsalflexion in the foot-joint. The 

 left shoulder- and elbow-joint are also stiffened. The axis of the 

 body is flexed with the concave side to the left. These particulars 

 can easily be observed in the photograph. 



At half past five the condition is still unchanged. 



At half past eight p. m. there is likewise a beginning of rigor 

 mortis in the right hind-leg and in the right shoulder. At eleven 

 o'clock the right fore- and hind-legs are also quite stiffened. On the 

 18''' of January the rigor mortis has entirely ceased. This observa- 

 tion was made at a temperature of 17° Celsius. Consequently the 

 rigor mortis began, on the side where the Rami communicantes had 

 been cut, 7 hours later than on the other side, where the nuiscles 

 were still connected with the spinalcord by means of the autonomic 

 nerve-tracks. This observation induced me to a series of intentionally 



1) Folio Neurobiologica VII (1913; 378 and 837. 



2) Verslag der Wi?.- en Xatuurk. Afd. Kon. Akad. v. Wetcnsch. Amsterdam, 

 April 1909. Deel XVll, p. 1008-1012. 



