73 



disappears completely in parts deprived only of the cerebral 

 action.* 



4th. In certain cases of paralysis, and more particularly of 

 the face, as after the removal of a large part of the facial nerve, 

 the muscular irritability may exist for years, at least in rabbits 

 and other animals. 



5th. It is very difficult, and sometimes almost impossible, to 

 know the relative degree of muscular irritability in healthy parts 

 compared with paralyzed parts, and such a knowledge could not 

 be of a great semeiological value. 



6th. The existence or the absence of reflex actions as a means 

 of diagnosis between the cerebral and the spinal paralysis, has 

 a much greater value than the degree of muscular irrita- 

 bility. 



XXII. ON THE INCREASE OF ANIMAL HEAT AFTER INJURIES 

 OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



In another part of this seriesf I have endeavored to prove 

 that the local increase of temperature following the section of 

 the sympathetic nerve, is the result of paralysis of the blood- 

 vessels. I will now relate some other cases in which a local 

 increase of temperature takes place after various other inju- 

 ries of the nervous system, and apparently in consequence of 

 the same cause. 



It was known, long ago, that an injury to the nervous system 

 might be followed by a partial or even a general elevation of 

 animal heat. Sir B. Brodie says,! Mr. Chossat has published an 

 account of some experiments on animals, in which he found 

 that the division of the superior portion of the spinal cord 

 produced a remarkable evolution of animal heat, so that it was 

 raised much above the natural standard. I have made experi- 



* I have had a pigeon on which nearly an inch of the costal part of the 

 spinal cord had been removed, and on which the muscular irritability in 

 the posterior limbs, and a very great reflex power, have existed as long as 

 I have taken care of it, i. e. more than twenty-seven months. I ought to 

 say that there has been no re-union of the separated parts of the spinal 

 cord. 



j- Medical Examiner, August 1853, p. 489. 



JMedico-Chirurg. Transactions, 1837. Vol. xx., p. 132. 



