384 MUSCULAR MOTION. 



or if, again, it be in a state of Jtest, as in sleep ; volition is no longer 

 exerted ; and voluntary motion is impracticable. This is the cause why 

 the erect attitude cannot be maintained during sleep ; and why the head 

 falls forward upon the chest, when somnolency is to such an extent as 

 to deprive the esfcisor muscles of the back and head of their stimulus 

 to activity. 1 That an emanation from the encephalon is necessary is 

 likewise proved by the effect of tying, cutting, compressing, or stupefy- 

 ing a nerve proceeding to a muscle ; it matters not that the will may 

 act ; the muscle does not receive the excitation, and no motion is pro- 

 duced ; a fact which proves, that nerves are the channels of communi- 

 cation between the brain and the muscles. If, again, we destroy the 

 medulla oblongata and medulla spinalis, we abolish all muscular mo- 

 tion, notwithstanding the brain may will, and the muscles be in a state 

 of physical integrity ; because we have destroyed the parts whence the 

 nerves proceed. In like manner, by successively slicing away the 

 medulla spinalis from its base to the occiput, we paralyse, in succession, 

 every muscle of the body that receives its nerves from the spinal marrow. 



Experiments of physiologists have confirmed the view, that the ence- 

 phalon is the chief seat of volition. When it has been sliced away to a 

 certain extent, the animal has been thrown into a state of stupor, 

 attended with loss of sensibility, power of locomotion, and especially 

 spontaneous motion ; and in writing, dancing, speaking, &c., we have 

 indisputable evidence of its direction by the intellect. It is not so clear, 

 that the seat of volition is restricted to the encephalon. There are 

 actions of the yet living trunk, which appear to show, that an obscure 

 volition may be exerted even after the brain has been separated from 

 the rest of the body ; and acephalous children have not only moved 

 perceptibly when in utero, but at birth. Without referring to the low- 

 est classes of animals, which execute voluntary motions for a long time 

 after they have been bisected, every one must have noticed the motions 

 of decapitated fowls, which continue for a time, to run and leap, and 

 apparently, to suffer uneasiness in the incised part. 



The feats of the Emperor Commodus are elucidative of this matter. 

 Herodian relates, that he was in the habit of shooting at the ostrich, as 

 it ran across the circus, with an arrow having a cutting edge ; and, 

 even when the shaft was true to its destination, and the head was sev- 

 ered from the body, it usually ran several yards before it dropped. 

 Kaauw Boerhaave nephew of the celebrated Hermann, himself an emi- 

 nent medical teacher at St. Petersburg asserts that he saw a cock, 

 thus decapitated, run a distance of twenty-three feet. Cases are also 

 recorded of men walking a few steps after decapitation, striking their 

 breasts, &c. ; but they can scarcely be regarded as authentic. 2 In 

 countries where judicial execution consists in decapitation by the sword, 

 sufficient opportunities must have presented themselves for testing this 

 question; but no zealous Naturforscher appears to have been pre- 



1 Adelon,art. Encephale (Physiol.) in Dict.de Med., vii. 516, Paris, 1823; and Physiol. de 

 l'Homme,ii.25, 2de edit, Paris, 1829. 



2 Adelon, op. citat., ii. 28 ; and Dr. J. R. Coxe, in Dunglison's Amer. Med. Intelligencer, 

 for May 15, 1837. 



