601 



minutes after the operation, and cadaveric rigidity began in some of 

 the muscles between the 32nd and 35th minute, and was fully esta- 

 blished between the 45th and 50th minute. 



For more than 70 minutes sensibility remained in the toes and in 

 the skin over the rigid muscles. There was a slight degree of sensi- 

 bility still evident in the skin of the knee 110 minutes after the 

 operation. 



It follows therefore that the duration of the essential vital property 

 of the sensitive nerves may last at least twice as long as the essential 

 vital properties of muscles after deprivation of blood. 



Exp. 2. In a large adult Rabbit I divided the posterior columns 

 of the spinal cord in the dorsal region, so as to leave the sensibility 

 of the hind limbs increased. I then amputated one of these limbs in 

 the upper part of the thigh, leaving the sciatic and crural nerves un- 

 injured, except that I took away their neurilemma in the whole length 

 of the thigh. 



The amputation had been made at nine o'clock,, A.M. 



At 9' 15 there was a notable hypereesthesia in the two hind legs, 

 greater in the amputated side than in the other. 



At 10'20' the hypersesthesia was at least as great in the ampu- 

 tated limb as in the other. 



At U'15 muscular irritability was much diminished in the ampu- 

 tated limb ; sensibility was still very great in this limb, but inferior to 

 that of the other. 



At 12 M. no trace of muscular irritability existed in the amputated 

 limb, and cadaveric rigidity had begun almost everywhere. Sensi- 

 bility, though diminished, was still as great as in the anterior limbs. 



At 1 P.M. traces of sensibility were still very evident in the whole 

 skin of the amputated limb. 



At 1*15 still some traces of sensibility, which disappeared at 1'30. 



In this experiment, as well as in the preceding, the sensitive 

 nerves kept their vital property much longer than the muscles after 

 deprivation of blood. 



In all the similar experiments that I have made, I have obtained 

 the same result. But as I have found and shown elsewhere that the 

 vital properties of nerves may be increased by the influence of the 

 oxygen of the atmosphere, there was in the experiments above related 

 a cause of error in the comparison of muscles with sensitive nerves. 



