Notices respecting New Books. 225 
Gallois’ experiments and reasonings, of such moment, as wholly 
to invalidate all his most important conclusions; and to leave 
him the discoverer of certain unconnected though most valuable 
facts, instead of the author of a new system, founded, as the Re- 
port alieges, on a basis never to be shaken. In Part II. the au- 
thor relates his own experiments, and points out the inferences 
to which they seem to lead—respecting the principle on which 
the action of the heart and vessels of circulation depends; the 
relation which subsists between these and the nervous system 5 
the principle on which the action of the muscles of voluntary 
motion depends, and the relation which they bear to the nervous 
system; the principle on which the action of the vessels of se- 
cretion depends, and the relation which they bear to the nervous 
system; the nature of the nervous influence; the principle on 
which the action of the alimentary canal depends, and the rela- 
tion which it bears to the nervous system; digestion, and the 
effects produced on the stomach and lungs by destroying certain 
portions of the spinal marrow, compared with those by dividing 
one or both of the eighth pair of nerves. 
The author then proceeds to “ the temperature of the animals 
in those experiments in which portions of the spinal marrow 
were destroyed,” or, generally, “ the cause of animal tempera- 
ture.” Alluding to Mr. Brodie’s Croonian lecture for 1810, in 
which he gave an account of experiments which led to the in- 
ference, that the produetion of animal temperature is under the 
influence of the nervous system; to the same gentleman’s ex- 
periments in the Philosophical Transactions of 1812, tending to 
strengthen this inference ; and tv his own, which tend to prove 
that the caloric which supports animal temperature, is evolved 
by the same means, namely, the action of the nervous influence 
on the blood, by which the formation of the secreted fluids is 
effected, and consequently that it is to be regarded as a secre- 
tion —he observes that “ if this view of the subject be correct, 
and galvanism be capable of performing the functions of the 
nervous influence, it ought to occasion an evolution of caloric, as 
it effects the formation of secreted fluids, from arterial blood, 
after the nervous influence is withdrawn.” To asgertain this 
point, certain experiments were made on animals, which he de- 
tails at length, and which, he suggests, ** afford by their result'a 
strong argument in favour of the identity of the nervous in=' 
Jluence and galvanism.”’ Ve next considers the use of the gan-, 
glions ; the relation which the different functions of the animal 
body bear to each other, and the order in which they cease in 
dying; reviews the inferences from his experiments and observa- 
tions ; and concludes with the application of these to explain: 
the nature and improve the treatment of diseases. 
Vol. 50. No. 233, Sept. 1817. P The 
