122 Animal Morphology. 



From a mere animal point of view, the integrity of touch 

 and force are dependent upon the conditions indicated by 

 want for their continuous activity either in procuring food, 

 or by exercise, increasing the demand of fresh supplies of 

 air, etc. 



Hence two senses are the servants, or handmaidens, of one 

 namely, the sense of want the indications of which are 

 material supplies for material wants, and material rest when 

 those wants are supplied. Hence, again, the successive 

 alternation of repose and exertion. 



How are two such contrasting senses to be reconciled by 

 subservient co-ordination and perfect reciprocity ? Probably 

 the cerebellum has more to do with this co-ordination than 

 any other part of the nervous system. 



The experiments of Dr. Dickinson, chiefly upon serpents, 

 are much in favour of such a view.* In this important 

 function it is not improbable that the cerebellum has a cer- 

 tain inhibitory power over continuous nerve action, which 

 puts a bar upon either sense taking an independent and 

 continuous course of action, but makes one to be in part 

 dependent upon the other for its continuous and sustained 

 action. 



Not that this view per se excludes the cerebellum from 

 having some nerve relation to the blood and assimilation. 

 What are often called internal, or central fits, and which are 

 frequently followed by changes in the blood, that tend to 

 retard motion and free circulation, have, in all probability, 

 some relation to a special function of the cerebellum which, 

 in nerve tissue, almost classifies it with mucous membrane 

 in relation to active vital function a function which it can 

 fulfil without injury to sensation, since it is not in direct re- 

 lation to any sensuous function whatsoever. 



* " On the Functions of the Cerebellum," by W. H. Dickinson, 

 M.D., British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, Oct. 1865, p. 455. 



