734 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



that obtained from experiment. In the first place, it fully supports the con- 

 clusion that the Cerebellum is not in any way the instrument of psychical opera- 

 tions. Inflammation of the membranes covering it, if confined to that part, 

 does not produce delirium ; and its almost complete destruction by gradual 

 softening does not appear necessarily to involve loss of intellectual power. "But," 

 remarks Andral, " whilst the changes of intelligence were variable, inconstant, 

 and of little importance, the lesions of motion, on the contrary, were observed in 

 all the cases [of softening] except one ; and in this it is not quite certain that 

 motion was not interfered with." Yet the result of Andral's analysis of as 

 many as ninety-three cases of disease of the Cerebellum, 1 is not favorable to 

 the doctrine to which the results of experiments seem to point; but, as it has 

 been justly remarked by Longet, the effects of disease are only partly compar- 

 able to those of experiment; since in a large proportion of chronic cases of 

 the former, the change consists in the formation of a new product, such as a 

 tubercular or cancerous deposit, or a cyst of some kind, the gradual develop- 

 ment of which is quite consistent with the continued functional activity of the 

 organ, as we see by parallel phenomena elsewhere ; whilst in those instances in 

 which hemorrhage occurs, this usually occasions either complete apoplexy or 

 local paralysis, by its effects upon other organs. Still, several cases of chro- 

 nic disease of the Cerebellum have been observed in which unsteadiness of gait, 

 without paralysis, or only giving place to paralysis at last on the occurrence of 

 hemorrhage, was a very marked symptom ; a and these afford a strong confirm- 

 ation of the doctrine based on the experimental researches already referred to. In 

 a few cases in which both lobes of the Cerebellum have been seriously affect- 

 ed, the tendency to retrograde movement has been observed ; and instances are 

 also on record, of the occurrence of rotary movement, which has been found 

 to be connected with lesion of the Crus Cerebelli on the same side. 3 So far as 

 they can be relied on, therefore, the results of the three methods of investigation 

 bear a very close correspondence ; and it can scarcely be doubted that they afford 

 us a near approximation to truth. 



766. It must not be allowed to pass unnoticed, that some Physiologists (as 

 Foville, Pinel-Grandchamp, and Duges) have regarded the Cerebellum as the 

 centre of common Sensation ; chiefly on the ground of its connection with the 

 posterior columns of the Spinal Cord, and of the manifestations of pain which 

 are called forth by touching the Restiform columns. Although these facts may 

 lead us to admit that the Cerebellum is connected with the sensorial centres, 

 and even that it is itself a seat of sensibility, yet it is impossible to regard it as 

 the exclusive seat of sensibility, consistently with the facts with which experi- 

 ment and pathological observation supply us ; since neither the complete removal 

 of this organ by operation, nor its complete destruction by disease, 4 has been 

 found to involve any loss of the ordinary sensorial powers. There would seem 

 much more probability in the idea that it is the special seat of the " muscular 

 sense," which has so important a share in the guidance of the co-ordinated move- 



1 See his " Clinique Me'dicale," 2eme edit. torn. v. p. 735. 



2 Two such cases are recorded by Mr. Dunn in the " Med.-Chir. Trans.," vol. xxxii., 

 and another by Dr. Cowan in the " Prov. Med. and Surg. Journ.," April 16, 1845; and 

 the Author has been made acquainted with several others, by gentlemen under whose cog- 

 nizance they have fallen. 



3 A collection of such cases has been made by Dr. Paget, in his paper on " Morbid 

 Rhythmical Movements/' in the " Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journal," 1847, vol. Ixvii. A 

 case fell within the Author's knowledge a few years ago, in which a state of this kind, 

 that lasted for some hours, appeared to depend upon an attack of indigestion ; the symp- 

 toms being completely relieved by vomiting, and no further indication of encephalic dis- 

 order manifesting itself. 



4 See the well-known case recorded by Combetti, in the "Revue Me'dicale," torn. ii. 

 p. 57 



