MUSCULAR SENSE. 411 



indeed, is the strongest evidence of its being born alive, but it is not 

 the only evidence." According to Coke, 1 "if it be born alive it is suf- 

 ficient, though it be not heard to cry, for peradventure it may be born 

 dumb. 2 It must be proved that the issue was alive ; for mortuus exitus 

 non est exitus; so that the crying is but a proof that the child was born 

 alive; and so is motion, stirring, and the like." This latitudinarian 

 definition has given occasion to erroneous decisions, as in the trial 

 alluded to, in which the jury agreed that the child was born alive; 

 because, although, when immersed in a warm bath immediately after 

 birth, it did not "cry, or move, or show any symptoms of life;" yet, 

 according to the testimony of two females, the nurse and the cook, 

 there twice appeared a twitching and tremulous motion of the lips; and 

 this was sufficient to make it fall under Lord Coke's definition. It is 

 manifest, that, granting such motion to have actually occurred, it was 

 of itself totally insufficient to establish the existence of somatic life. 

 We have seen, that on the application of stimuli, the muscles of a body 

 may be thrown into contraction for two hours after the cessation of 

 respiration and circulation or after somatic death. Instead, therefore, 

 of referring the irritability to the existence, at the time, of somatic life, 

 it must be regarded simply as an evidence of the persistence of mole- 

 cular life in parts that had previously and recently formed part of a 

 living whole. 



The contraction of a muscle is followed by its relaxation ; the fibres 

 returning to their former condition. This appears to be a passive state; 

 and to result from the suppression of the nervous influx by the will ; 

 in other words, from the simple cessation of contraction. Some have, 

 however, regarded both states to be active, but without proof. Barthez 3 

 maintains, that the relaxation of a muscle is produced by a nervous 

 action the reverse of that which occasions its contraction ; the will re- 

 laxing the muscles as well as contracting them. The muscle is the only 

 part susceptible of contraction. The tendon conveys the force deve- 

 loped by it, passively to the lever, which has to be moved. 



It has been ascertained by MM. Becquerel and Breschet, 4 that a 

 muscle during contraction augments in temperature. This increase is 

 usually more than one degree of Fahrenheit ; but at times when the 

 exertion has been continued for five minutes, as in the case of the 

 biceps of the arm, in sawing wood, it has been double that amount. 5 



Lastly, a sensation instructs the mind that a muscle has contracted, 

 and this has given rise to the notion of a muscular sense, and a sensa- 

 tion of motion : M uskelsinn, Bewegungssinn or muscular 

 sense of Gruithuisen, Lenhossek, 6 Brown, 7 Sir C. Bell, 8 and other 



1 Institutes, 30, a. 



3 It need scarcely be said that the deaf-dumb cry at the moment of birth the same as 

 other children. The natural cry is effected by them as well as by the infant that possesses 

 all its senses. It is the acquired voice, alone, which they are incapable of attaining. 



3 Nouveaux Elemens de la Science de 1'Homme, Paris, 1806. 



< Archiv. du Museum, torn. i. p. 402, and Annales des Sciences Naturelles, nouv. serie, 

 iii. 272. 



6 See on this subject Helmholtz, in Miiller's Archiv., H. ii. s. 144, Berlin, 1848. 



6 Rudolphi, Grundriss der Physiologic, 2te Band, Iste Abtheil., s. 318, Berlin, 1823. 



7 Lectures on Moral Philosophy. 



s The Hand, &c., Amer. edit., p. 145, Philad., 1833. 



