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the spinal cord has been made, that this is the case.* The section 

 was made at the level of one of the last six dorsal vertebrae or 

 the two first lumbar. 



When the convulsive fit begins, the muscles of the face and 

 neck are the first which contract. The convulsions occur alter- 

 nately in all the muscles of the eye, the face, the tongue, the 

 jaws and the neck ; so that the cause of these movements ought 

 to act on the parts of the encephalon, from whence the facial, 

 the trigeminal, the hypoglossus, and the motor nerves of the 

 eyes originate. The head of the animal is alternately bent 

 on both sides of the body, and lastly the limbs are agitated 

 in every direction. In the case of a section of the lateral 

 half of the spinal cord, in the lumbar region or at the end 

 of the dorsal region, three limbs only are strongly convulsed ; 

 the two anterior and one of the posterior the one that is on 

 the side of the body opposite to the side of the section of the 

 spinal marrow. The other posterior limb has only very slight 

 movements. When the spinal cord has been entirely divided in 

 the dorsal or lumbar regions, the two anterior limbs only are 

 convulsed, with the muscles of the face and neck. These con- 

 vulsions may come without any exterior excitation ; but it is very 

 easy generally to provoke them by frightening the animal, or 

 by pinching, burning or otherwise exciting it. The part of the 

 body upon which a mechanical excitation acts more powerfully 

 is the skin of the face or the neck. This convulsive affection 

 has a great analogy with epilepsy ; but it has also some dis- 

 tinctive features, for instance, the animals, during the convul- 

 sions, do not appear to lose their consciousness, and they 

 frequently cry when they are pinched. 



The affection begins generally eight, ten or twelve days 

 after the spinal cord has been wounded. The convulsions then 

 are not very strong, and it is usually four or five weeks after 

 the operation that the fits are violent and easily produced. 

 Three or four months after, the violence and frequency of these 

 convulsions are diminished ; yet in two or three instances they 

 have increased in strength and frequency more than a year after 

 the operation. The affection may last a long time: in one case 

 it still existed two years after the operation. 



* See Gaz. Med. de Paris, 1850, t. v. pp. 651, 895. 

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