388 



Mr. Davy, preferring some name founded upon one of its obvious 

 and characteristic properties, proposes chloric gas, which does not 

 imply any error, and would not require to be changed, even if it 

 should hereafter be discovered to be a compound. 



For expressing the compounds of this substance with other bodies, 

 he is not disposed to employ the same term, but proposes adding to 

 each base the terminal syllable ine, which is to imply the presence of 

 the chloric base. Thus horn silver is to be called argentme : butter 

 of antimony, antimowme, &c. He conceives also, that by means of 

 vowels prefixed to the name, the proportion in which this body is 

 combined with others may be conveniently expressed. 



The Croonian Lecture. On some Physiological Researches, respecting 

 the Influence of the Brain on the Action of the Heart, and on the 

 Generation of animal Heat. By Mr. B. C. Brodie, F.R.S. Read 

 December 20, 1810. [Phil. Trans. 1811, p. 36.] 



It has been observed by Mr. Cruickshank, and the same obser- 

 vations have been made by M. Bichat (in his Recherches Physiolo- 

 giques sur la Vie et la Mort), that the brain is not directly necessary 

 to the action of the heart ; and that when the functions of the brain 

 are destroyed, the circulation of the blood ceases only in consequence 

 of the suspension of the respiration. 



The former of these observations Mr. Brodie had found to be cor- 

 rect ; for if the spinal marrow were divided, though the respiration 

 was thereby immediately stopped, still the heart continued to con- 

 tract, and to propel forward, for a short time, dark-coloured blood ; 

 and even when the head was entirely removed, if the blood-vessels 

 were secured by ligature, the circulation seemed unaffected by the 

 entire separation. It appeared, therefore, in conformity to the second 

 observation, to cease solely in consequence of the suspension of re- 

 spiration ; but Mr. Brodie conceived that this point might admit of 

 direct proof by experiment ; for in that case the heart should con- 

 tinue to act for a greater length of time, if the process of respiration 

 were carried on artificially. 



The present lecture comprises the details of his experiments on 

 this subject. 



The first experiment was made upon a rabbit, the head of which 

 was removed after the blood-vessels had been tied up ; and the lungs 

 were then inflated artificially once in five seconds, during twenty-five 

 minutes. The circulation of the blood was found to continue the 

 whole of that time ; but it was observed that no secretion of urine 

 took place. 



The second experiment was made upon a middle-sized dog, for 

 the purpose of ascertaining also, whether the animal heat was kept 

 up to its natural standard. At the end of two hours the pulse con- 

 tinued as high as seventy, but in the next half hour it was found to 

 have declined rapidly, and the artificial respiration was discontinued. 

 At the end of one hour a thermometer in the rectum hud fallen G ; 



