961 



III this wav we luive piitxcd ilial the view of Hermann is iiiour- 

 reet, iicrurdiiig' (o which the iiilliieiiee of the ceiitriil Jiervoiis system 

 on the oeciiiTeiu'C of rigor mortis shoiihl he caused Iw the 

 mortilicatioii of the hi<>her centra by wiiich impulses siioiiid be 

 driven towartls the muscles. For in mv experiments in which I cut 

 on one side the posterior roots, the way from the central nei-vous 

 system 'to the muscle is jiowhere intei-ru|)led ; only the supply of 

 reMexstimiilants (from the proprioceptores) is prevented. Rigor mortis 

 is consequently also caused by a reflectoric process. 



If we ask now how we arc to understand the tonical innervation 

 for accelerating rigor mortis, the answer must run, iji my opinion, 

 [u-etty well as follows. 



We know from Fi.etchek and Winteiïstein that the indispensable 

 cause of rigor mortis is to be found in a chemical state of the 

 muscles, which is caused by want of. oxygen. 



This "cUemical state" will certainly depend on the exislejice of 

 products of metabolism. It is for the present unknown which are 

 these products. There are however, I surmise, sufficient reasons to 

 admit that they are products of partial transmutation, for supply of 

 oxygen, which certainly encourages transmutation, prevents rigor mortis, 

 and increase of temperature wd.icli also promotes transmutation, 

 accelerates rigor mortis. 



We can reconcile these two facts in jio other way than by ad- 

 mitting that in the tirst case the ample supjily of oxygen causes the 

 processes of metabolism to take their normal cour.ses to the end, 

 consequently to complete oxydations, dui-ing which then the ol)noxious 

 intermediate products do not come into existence, or do not continue 

 to exist. In this \yay it is also comprehensible that increase of 

 temi)erature promotes rigor mortis so much, because witii the metabolism, 

 taking place then with still greater rapidity and intensity, the \vant 

 of oxygen, resp. the deficit of oxygen, is felt so much the stronger. 



If now in this i-espect we conijuire the two hindlegs of a frog 

 of which on one side the reflex-stimulants for the tonus have no 

 longer access, then the leg with intact reflex-track has muscles that 

 are in a state of tonus, whilst thf' tonus in the other side has dis- 

 appeared. The leg with muscles in tonus, requiring for the entertain- 

 ment of this situation more metabolism will consequently show a 

 more rapid and intensive accumulation of intermediate products of 

 metabolism than the atonic leg, which docs notrcquire so much 

 oxygen on account of less intensive metabolism. 



