FUNCTIONS OF THE CEREBELLUM. 717 



spheres. The corpus dentatum was completely destroyed. This woman " walked well 

 but it appears nevertheless that she vacillated very slightly in her gait, without, how- 

 ever, a tendency to fall." 



We have thus cited quite a number of cases of disease confined to the cerebellum, in 

 which there was marked disturbance in the muscular movements ; but there are others 

 in which the movements were unaffected. As an example of the latter, we may refer to 

 a case quite fully reported by Bouvier : 



CASE XII. "A man, fifteen years of age, had been subject, for a length of time, to 

 a discharge from the ear, with deafness and frequent headache. He was suddenly seized 

 with more severe headache on the left side of the head, vomiting, and disorder of mind. 

 His symptoms were, indeed, so characteristic, that a physician who was consulted pro- 

 nounced him to be laboring under abscess in the head, and that death was almost certain. 



" He entered the Hotel Dieu on the 15th of September, three weeks after the last 

 exacerbation, when he complained of fixed pain in the head, which frequently caused 

 him to cry out ; sensibility, in other respects, obtuse; slow answers; somnolency; face 

 pale ; features sunken ; look, sad and anxious ; a copious, purulent discharge from the 

 left ear ; deafness of the same side ; pulse slightly slower ; vomiting ; constipation ; the 

 movements of the limbs were preserved, an incomplete paralysis of the upper eyelid 

 being alone observed. 



" These symptoms continued for the following days without any marked aggravation ; 

 and it seemed probable that the patient's life might still be prolonged for some time, 

 when, on the 23d of September, after vomiting, accompanied by great agitation and vio- 

 lent outcry, he suddenly fell into a state of complete collapse. Respiration became 

 embarrassed, and he died eight days after his entrance into the hospital, with symptoms 

 of asphyxia. 



" On examining the body, there was found, as had been foretold during life, a caries 

 of the petrous portion of the temporal bone, and an abscess in the interior of the cra- 

 nium. But what was remarkable, the abscess occupied the left hemisphere of the cere- 

 bellum, although nothing led to the suspicion that there was any lesion of that organ. 

 There was an extensive cavity, which invaded the .two outer thirds of the left lobe of 

 the cerebellum, and which contained several table-spoonfuls of pus, somewhat similar to 

 that of an abscess. The substance forming its parietes were softened and of a livid tint. 

 The meatus auditorius was filled with reddish vegetations. 



" The caries occupied the base of the pars petrosa only the labyrinth and auditory 

 nerve were untouched. There was no perceptible communication between the internal 

 abscess and the abscess of the caries. The disease of the bone, however, extended to 

 the dura mater, in two very circumscribed points, at the upper and hind part of the pars 

 petrosa. The dura mater, opposite these points, was deeply colored ; and its coloration 

 extended to its inner surface, where it was in contact with the cerebellum. 



"The cerebral ventricles were, moreover, distended by a limpid fluid; and the pia 

 mater exhibited a decided injection under the anterior part of the cerebral lobes, chiefly 

 on the left side. 



" ' Two circumstances,' says M. Bouvier, ' give interest to this case. Tho first is the 

 almost entire separation, by means of the dura mater which was scarcely affected 

 between two lesions, one of which must have been the effect of the other ; so that it is 

 difficult to explain, merely by continuity of tissue, the transmission of the affection from 

 the ear to the cerebellum. 



" ' The second is the absence of all the symptoms which have been of late regarded av 

 an effect of lesions of the cerebellum such as augmentation of the trcnt-ml sensibility. 

 loss of equilibrium, and excitation of the genital organs. Could this peculiarity be owin:.' 

 to the slowness of the affection, or to its not having extended sufficiently far from the 

 side of the medulla oblongata? ' " 



The interpretation of certain of the cases which we have cited depends apparently 



