12 



them. Galvanism applied to a palsied limb acts partly in pro- 

 ducing the transformation of arterial into venous blood, i. e., 

 what Gustav Liebig calls the respiration of the muscles. I have 

 seen frequently the venous blood, in palsied limbs, becoming as 

 black as normal venous blood, after the application of galvanism. 

 This change of coloration is not produced by a direct chemical 

 influence, exerted by galvanism on the blood, for if galvanism is 

 applied to blood in a vase, nothing of that kind is seen. It is in 

 consequence of an interchange between blood and the living 

 tissues that the change of color happens. The muscular con- 

 traction which takes place under the influence of the nervous 

 system, or that of galvanism, produces, in both cases, an increase 

 in the darkness of the venous blood. This fact proves that the 

 consumption of oxygen by muscles is increased during their 

 contraction. 



I conclude from the preceding facts : 



1st. Nervous action is not necessary for nutrition. 



2d. Atrophy in palsied limbs is more a consequence of absence 

 of exercise than of any other cause. 



3d. Muscular atrophy, at any stage, may be cured by 

 galvanism. 



b. Influence of the nervous centres on nutrition and secretion. 



1. Every one knows the singular alterations which take place 

 in the eye after a contusion of the frontal nerve, or a section of 

 the trigeminal or the cervical sympathetic nerves. Every one 

 knows also that the existence of worms in the intestinal canal, 

 and also certain affections of the spinal cord, are able to produce 

 morbid phenomena in vision, and even diseases of the eye, 

 and especially amaurosis. I have found that after the section 

 of a lateral half of the spinal cord, it sometimes happens that the 

 eye, on the same side where the cord has been wounded, will 

 present strange and various alterations. The part of the cord 

 having that influence on the eye, lies between the ninth and the 

 twelfth costal vertebrae. The alteration exists generally in the 

 cornea. In one case a ridge appeared on the anterior surface 

 of that membrane four days after the operation. On the fifth 

 day the ridge was deeper, and its edges had become opaque ; on 

 the sixth day all the cornea was opaque. It remained so for 



