388 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



though, it is less in the recumbent posture, it is never en- 

 tirely absent. A very elaborate article on certain affections 

 of the inner ear, including Meniere's disease, with numer- 

 ous illustrative cases, was published by Dr. Knapp, in the 

 Archives of Ophthalmology and Otology, New York, 18T1, 

 vol. ii., No. i. A careful study of these cases, comparing 

 them with the cases of deficient coordination from disease of 

 the cerebellum, cannot fail to show a great difference be- 

 tween the phenomena following cerebellar disease and the 

 muscular phenomena due to well-marked and persistent 

 vertigo. 1 



Connection of the Cerebellum with the Generative Func- 

 tion. The fact that the cerebellum is the centre for equili- 

 bration and the coordination of certain muscular movements 

 does not necessarily imply that it has no other functions. 

 The idea of Gall, that " the cerebellum is the organ of the 

 instinct of generation," 2 is sufficiently familiar ; and there 

 are numerous facts in pathology that show a certain relation 

 between this nerve-centre and the organs of generation, 

 though the idea that it presides over the generative function 

 is not sustained by the results of experiments on animals, 

 or by facts in comparative anatomy. 



In experiments on animals in which the cerebellum has 

 been removed, there is nothing pointing directly to this part 

 as the organ of the generative instinct. Flourens removed a 

 great part of the cerebellum in a cock. The animal survived 

 for eight months. It was put several times with hens, and 

 always attempted to mount them, but without success, from 

 want of equilibrium. In this animal, the testicles were 

 enormous. 3 This observation has been repeatedly confirmed, 

 and there are no instances in which the cerebellum has been 



1 KNAPP, A Clinical Analysis of the Inflanvnatory Affections of the Inner Ear, 

 New York, 1871. 



2 GALL, Sur les fonctions du cerveau, Paris, 1825, tome Hi., p. 245. 



3 FLOURENS, Systeme nerveux, Paris, 1842, p. 163 



