MOTOR AND SENSORY NERVES. 77 



the nervous system, was very near discovering the functions 

 of the spinal roots; still the fact that the anterior are de- 

 voted to movement, while the posterior belong more par- 

 ticularly to sensation, seems to have escaped him ; it is, 

 then, to having established this fact in a positive manner 

 that I must limit my pretensions." 



Such are the experiments by which the properties of the 

 roots of the spinal nerves were discovered. From that time, 

 the fact took its place in science, that the posterior roots are 

 for sensation and the anterior for motion. Some discussion 

 has arisen as to whether the anterior roots do not possess a 

 certain amount of sensibility, called recurrent sensibility, 

 and this question has engaged the attention of physiologists 

 within, a few years ; but the distinct functions of the two 

 roots have never been doubted. We have already seen what 

 use Bell made of these facts in late editions of his work on 

 the nervous system. Before the days of anaesthetics, expos- 

 ing the roots of the nerves in the dog was very laborious, 

 and painful to the animal, and the disturbances produced by 

 so serious an operation interfered somewhat with the effects 

 of irritation of the different roots. But now that the canal 

 may be opened without pain to the animal, the experiments 

 are much more satisfactory and have often been repeated by 

 physiologists. We have frequently, indeed, demonstrated 

 the properties of the roots of the nerves in public teaching. 2 



Although, as we have seen, almost all physiological 

 writers, even in France, regarded Bell as the real discoverer, 

 Magendie continued to claim that he first positively ascer- 

 tained the seat of motion and sensation in the spinal nerves. 



1 Ibid., p. 371. 



9 FLINT, JR., Experiment* on the Recurrent Sensibility of the Anterior Hoots 

 of the Spinal Nerves. Xew Orleans Medical Times, 1861, p. 21, et seq. 



At the time that this paper was written, we had not had an opportunity of 

 consulting the original memoir of Sir Charles Bell, and, with others, regarded 

 him as the discoverer of the functions of the roots of the nerves. We have 

 also had occasion to modify the views therein expressed concerning the recur- 

 rent sensibility of the anterior roots. 



