302 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



Legallois published, in 1812, a remarkable memoir on 

 the principle of life. In this work, he details numerous ex- 

 periments, many of them on the nervous system, and of 

 great interest in connection with the present question. In 

 the rabbit, after division of the cord in the lumbar region, 

 Legallois showed that " sensation and voluntary motion con- 

 tinued to take place, even in the posterior extremities. But 

 there is no longer any connection in sensation or movement 

 between the anterior parts and the parts posterior to the 

 section of the cord ; that is to say that, if the tail or, in- 

 deed, one of the hind-feet be pinched, the entire posterior 

 parts are agitated, but the anterior parts seem to feel noth- 

 ing, and do not move." l 



Passing over a few confirmatory observations by other 

 experimenters, we come to those of Fodera, in 1822. Fodera 

 states that " in wounds of the spinal cord, the animal suffers 

 pain and convulsions ; if it be divided transversely, there is 

 paralysis of the posterior parts, w r ith loss of sensation and 

 motion. But irritation applied below the section produces 

 agitation of the muscles to which the nerves derived from it 

 are distributed. The animal does not suffer pain, for it 

 has no consciousness of what takes place in these parts." 2 

 Again, Fodera says : " With regard to the spinal cord, com- 

 plete transverse section in birds does not in general en- 

 tirely paralyze the posterior extremities ; if we pinch the 

 foot, they withdraw it, although they suffer no pain from it ; 

 but if the spinal cord be entirely destroyed in the interior 

 of the vertebral canal, the paralysis is perfect." ! At about 

 the same time, Mayo described, even more definitely than 

 his predecessors, the reflex function of the cord, in the fol- 

 lowing words : 



1 LEGALLOIS, Experiences sur le prindpe de la vie. (Euvres, Paris, 1824, p. 80. 



2 FODERA, RecJierches experimentales sur le systeme nerveuz, Presentees d 

 r Academic des sciences le 31 decembre, 1822. Journal de la physiologic ', Paris, 

 1823, tome iii., p. 196. 



3 Op. tit., p. 214. 



