78 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



In 1823, after reiterating his statements with regard to the 

 nerves, he extended his researches to the cord itself, and de- 

 monstrated that the anterior columns were motor and the 

 posterior columns sensitive. 1 In all his subsequent publica- 

 tions the same statements are made." 



Shaw, in his " Narrative," states that, in 1822, Magendie 

 " admitted that the experiments on the roots of the spinal 

 nerves, which he had claimed as original, had been performed 

 many years before by Sir Charles Bell." 3 This is not cor- 

 rect ; and we have already quoted in full the passage in which 

 Magendie gives Bell full credit for what he had done, but 

 expressly states that the fact, that the anterior roots preside 

 over movement, and the posterior, over sensation, seems to 

 have escaped him. Shaw also quotes Desmoulins and Ma- 

 gendie as admitting " that there is no absolute distinction 

 between the functions possessed by the two roots ; " 4 but, in 

 doing this, he translates the expression into English incor- 

 rectly. In the passage referred to, it is stated that " L'isole- 

 ment des deux proprietes dans chacun des deux ordres de ra- 

 cines, n'est done pas absolu," which simply means that the 

 motor roots are not absolutely without sensibility, and the 

 sensory roots are not absolutely devoid of motor properties. 



The experiments of Magendie, made in 1822, must stand 

 without further question as the first to demonstrate the true 

 properties of the two roots of the spinal nerves ; and, before 

 the publication of these experiments, no physiologist had a 

 correct idea, theoretical or experimental, of the seat of motion 

 and sensation in these nerves. 



1 MAGENDIE, Note sur le siege du mouvement et du sentiment dans le moelle 

 epinere. Journal de physiologic, Paris, 1823, tome iii., p. 153, et seq. 



2 DESMOULINS ET MAGENDIE, Anatomie des systemes nerveux des animaux d ver- 

 tebres, Paris, 1825, tome il, p. 777. 



MAGENDIE, Precis elementaire de physiologic, deuxieme edition, Paris, 1825, 

 tome i., pp. 167, 216; et, quatrieme edition, 1836, tome i., pp. 200, 266. 



8 ALEXANDER SHAW, Narrative of the Discoveries of Sir Charles Bell in ihA 

 Nervous System, London, 1839, p. 156. 



4 Loc. cit., p. 168. 



