1098 
to keep their muscles relaxed, and to try not to make any movement. 
Judging from the curves, this request has been attended to, as the 
duration and form of the second contraction seem to exclude the 
possibility of a voluntary origin. I think I may assume that the 
second contraction was not caused by any intended or conscious 
impulse. But then we have two possibilities. Eitber the second con- 
traction was also a reflex-response, but from a higher nervous level, 
or it might be the first from a strongly damped clonus. Iam inclined 
to think, that in most cases the second contraction was caused by 
a reflex from a higher level, though [ cannot prove it. But on the 
other hand I must also accept the other explanation. Amongst a 
series of curves taken from the “normal” leg of a hemiplegic patient, 
which often show the form of fig. 8, I found one single record 
Curve from the same patient from whom fig. 3 was taken. 
reproduced in fig. 4. Here we see that the tibialis contraction as 
soon as it is started, degenerates into a series of rhythmic, gradually 
ceasing clonic oscillations. In another patient suffering from a 
medullary disease, I obtained the record, shown in fig. 5. This record 
differs from tbe fig. 1—4 in as much as the upper curve does 
not represent the movement of the foot, but the thickening of the 
triceps surae. We immediately see, that the dorsal flexion of the 
foot starts the reflex and at the same time a series of clonic con- 
tractions in both the tibialis anticus and the triceps surae. These 
last contractions prove at least the possibility of the second tibialis 
contraction being the first of a strongly damped clonus. 
As yet I have not considered the literature. There is some reason 
for this, as I have not been able to find in it any reference to a 
