THORAX. 



1045 



among the miseries of human life, that such 

 anger and bitter quarrels should be forced 

 upon us on account of matters wherein we are 

 so little personally concerned."* 



Yet, strange to say, Haller opposed with 

 extreme violence his contemporary Hamber- 

 ger, whose investigations on this subject, 

 though still extant, fell, consequently, into 

 oblivion. 



We know not who discovered the two sets 

 of intercostals. There appears to be no ac- 

 count of them prior to Galen, A. D. 131. He 

 observes, "the intercostal muscles help the 

 midriff, that they might draw the chest in- 

 ward."f Albinus (A.D. 1770) considered that 

 both the internal and external layers " raise 

 the ribs." J H. Cooke, a learned compiler of 

 1651, believed, they " constrained and dilated 

 the chest," " that the external layers bear 

 down the ribs, and that the internal separate 

 the ribs, so enlarging the thoracic cavity." 

 Strange to say, after this Cooke divests these 

 muscles of all thoracic motion whatever. 



In 1685 it was the received opinion that the 

 external layer dilated, and that the inter- 

 nal layer contracted the thorax, || John Al- 

 phonso Borelli led the way to a different 

 opinion, which prevailed amongst most phy- 

 siological writers. He believed, from mathe- 

 matical reasoning, that " the fibres crossing 

 each other produced only one effect, viz., 

 the drawing of the ribs together," acting 

 in the diagonal of the decussation. It is 

 curious that he never considered the proba- 

 bility of the two forces acting separately, as 

 other antagonising muscles can do. ^f W. 

 Cheselden believed that both these muscles 

 dilated the thorax, acting as elevators of the 

 ribs, when the 1st rib was fixed by the scaleni 

 and serratus posticus posterior. ** 



Cooke follows the views of Cheselden and 

 Borelli.ff Benjamin Hoadly takes another 

 view ; and, in so doing, illustrates the subject 

 with diagrams, and comes to the conclusion 

 that the external layers elevate, and that the 

 internal depress the ribs ; and that their com- 

 bined action is to arrest the respiratory move- 

 ment at will. He also says, " neither range 

 can by their action push the ribs asunder.";}; J 

 Winslow agrees with Borelli : presupposing, 

 as usual, that the first rib is fixed. 



Still the subject continued to be warmly dis- 

 puted, when Haller published a controversial 

 paper in 1746. In his " Elements ,"he treats the 



* El. Phys. vol. iii. p. 36. 



| De Usu Resp., ch. 15., 5 lib., De Usu Partium. 



j Tr., fol., ed. 1777. Tab. xvii. 9, 10, et seq. 



Cooke's Descrip. Anat, fol., 1651., p. 257. 



Ij Samuel Collins's System of Anat., fol., 1685, 

 vol. ii. p. 825. 



^[ De Motu Animalium, pars secunda. Lugduni 

 Batavorum, 1710, p. 106., Prop. 84., Tab. xviii. 

 Fig. 2. 



** Anatomy of the Humane Body, 3rd ed. 8vo., 

 Lond. 1726, p. 117. 



ft Cook's Anat. and Mechanical Essays, Lond. 

 1730, vol. i. p. 282. et seq. 



JJ Gulstonian Lect. on Resp. 4to., Lond. 1740, 

 p. 6. 



Anatomical Exposition, 4to,. Lond. 1749, vol. 

 i. p. 318. 



subject at length, siding with those whom he 

 thinks are right, and confirming the same by 

 many direct experiments.* Haller's view is, 

 that the external layers elevate the ribs, be- 

 cause their superior attachment is nearer the 

 vertebrae than their inferior one. Franciscus 

 Boissier de Sauvages agrees with him ; and 

 the same is held by the majority, yet some 

 doubt it. 



His opinion touching the internal layer is, 

 that they likewise act as associates and ele- 

 vators of the ribs with the external layer, be- 

 cause " their superior attachment is nearer 

 the sternum, and further from that bone in 

 the lower ones ;" likewise, that " that por- 

 tion of the internal layer placed between the 

 bony parts of the ribs, cannot have a diffe- 

 rent action from that portion placed between 

 the cartilages." Job. Swammerdam, Francis 

 Bayle, J. Wilhelmus Pauli, Christianus Vater, 

 Francis Nicholls, J. Fredericus Schreiber, 

 differ from this, believing that the internal 

 layers draw down the ribs. 



Now follows a sharp antagonist to Haller, 

 viz. Hamberger, whose disputes with Haller 

 we gather from Haller's writings, and not 

 from Hamberger's writings. 



Hamberger breaks out with an entirely new 

 view, which excites Haller to controversy.! 



Hamberger, says Haller J, believes that the 

 external intercostal muscles have one action, 

 that they would raise the sternum : " that 

 the internal layer would depress it." Ham- 

 berger makes a machine " to demonstrate, 

 that when the ribs are raised by these muscles 

 their intervals are dilated ; when depressed, 

 on the contrary, they are diminished." He 

 furthermore gives, as his own discovery, that 

 " the internal intercostals conjoining the os- 

 seous portions of the ribs, and that portion 

 which is between the cartilages, will raise 

 them, and are therefore associated in action 

 with the external layer." Hamberger was the 

 first to assign a double action to the same 

 class of muscles : he likewise believed that 

 the whole ribs were lifted simultaneously^ 

 Haller disputes the validity of Hamberger's 

 experiments, upon the ground of his not con- 

 sidering the relative mobility of the first and 

 second rib ; because, says Haller, if the de- 

 pressing power of the intercostal muscles is to 

 the first rib as 20, the elevating power on the 

 second rib, by reason of the difference of 

 length and mobility, is as 380, nearly nine- 

 teen times greater ; and the lower rib is to 

 each superior rib, as far as ; the seventh, 

 more moveable, in the ratio of 109 to 79. || 

 We cannot see, with Haller, how the ten- 



* Vide Elementa Physiol. Corporis Humani, 

 torn, iii., p. 28., et seq. Lausan. 4to., 1766. 



f Hamberger was born 1697, and died in 1755. 

 Haller's first anatomical paper upon respiration 

 appeared in 1746, and his Elementa Physiol. Cor- 

 poris Humani, in 1757-66. 



J El. Phys. ib. p. 37. 



Hamberger's writings on this subject were an 

 essay De Respirationis Mechanismo, Jenae, 1727, and 

 also Physiologia Medica, Jenae, 1751. ED. 



1| Loc. cit. p. 39. et seq. 



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