122 Alison un the Theory ascribing Secretion 



correct, yet I think we may say with confidence, that in the 

 present state of our knowledge it is not philosophical. The 

 proper conclusion from the examples of secretion and nutrition 

 going on independently of nervous influence should have been, 

 not to suggest an additional hypothesis that another influence 

 equivalent to that of nerves may be applied, but to invalidate 

 the hypothesis formerly entertained, that nervous influence is 

 essential to secretion. 



Abstracting from the rare occurrence of the foetus without 

 either brain or spinal m?Lnovf, the foetus acephalits, of whichmany 

 examples are recorded, appears a sufficient answer to the con- 

 clusion drawn from the experiments both of Dr. Philip and 

 Mr. Brodie. In the child of whom we have an account by Mr. 

 Lawrence in his paper in the Medico- Chirurgical Transactions, 

 Vol. v., p. 165, there was neither brain nor cerebellum. This 

 child lived four days, and the secretions from its stomach, 

 bowels, and, kidneys, seem to have been quite natural. Surely 

 this is sufficient to shew that the division of the eighth pair of 

 nerves, and of the spinal marrow in the neck, which stopped the 

 secretions of gastric juice, and of urine in those experiments, 

 could not have acted by cutting off an influence, essential to 

 secretion, coming from the brain. 



4. If any farther proof be required, that the conclusion drawn 

 from the experiments of Mr. Brodie and Dr. Philip of an in- 

 fluence derived from the nervous system being essential to 

 secretion, is not warranted by the facts already known on the 

 subject, — I think it is afforded, as has been already stated, by 

 Mr. Lawrence in the paper above referred to, p. 223, by the 

 experiments of these authors themselves. In animals in which 

 the eighth pair of nerves is divided, the bronchise and air-cells 

 of the lungs are always found, as Dr. Philip expresses it, 

 " clogged with a frothy mucus," which prevents the lungs 

 from collapsing when the thorax is opened after death, and 

 which, by preventing the application of air to the blood in the 

 lungs, appears, from the observations of Dr. Philip, Le Gallois, 

 and others, to be the immediate cause of the death that suc- 

 ceeds that operation. 



