064 Dr Ciaigie o?t Comparative Anatomy. 



imitation of these effects, he removed successive portions of the 

 brain in the lower animals, and shewed that so long as the ori- 

 gins of the nerves are unaffected, the great functions of the sys- 

 tem are unimpaired, and therefore that life is, within certain li- 

 mits, independent of the influence of the brain. " Quod sum- 

 ma admiratione dignum existit," says Colter, in the genuine 

 spirit of an enthusiastic votary of science, " brutorum viventium 

 cerebi'a detexi, vulneravl, et intactis nervls eorundemque princi- 

 piis, et ventricuhs mediis illaesis, exemi ; at nullum vel vocis, 

 rel respirationis vel sensus, vel motus offenslonis signum in iis 

 deprehendi. Aves absque cerebro aliquandiu vivunt, ut quilibet 

 in gallinis vel puUis galllnaceis, si rostrum superius cum dimidia 

 capitis parte absciderit, cerebrique majorem exemerit partem, 

 experiri potest." In these experiments and deductions, Coiter 

 anticipates Haller, Zinn, Flourens, and Magendle ; and, eveii 

 by the conclusions which he has established, he throws nearly 

 as much light on this obscure subject as has been done by all 

 the researches of modern times. 



His pathological observations equally demonstrate the acute- 

 ness and originality of his mind. Besides observing the palsy 

 which follows severe and probably lead colic, he had remark- 

 ed in persons who die of fever, with delirium, convulsive, or 

 paralytic symptoms, not only that the cavities of the brain 

 contained limpid w'atery fluid, and its substance a watery and 

 bloody infiltration, but that the space between the membranes 

 of the spinal cord round the origins of the nerves, was distended 

 with the same limpid watery fluid. This may be regarded 

 as the first authentic instance in which proof was adduced of 

 changes in the cord, or its membranes, being the cause of con- 

 vulsive or paralytic symptoms. Coiter further distinguishes 

 dropsical infiltration of the pulmonic tissue from effusion into the 

 pleura, or ordinary dropsy of the chest, and traces several in- 

 stances of dropsy to induration, or as he terms it, sclrrhusof the 

 viscera. 



Coiter is the first who gives figures of the skeletons of several 

 quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles. On the whole, he appears to 

 have been a person of great enterprise, indefatigable application, 

 and very considerable originality. All his observations bear the 

 impress of an observing, original, and inventive mind. 



(To be conlimicth) 



