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plexuses, on one side, in mammals, if we suddenly asphyxiate 

 the animal, we see, at first, convulsive movements in the three 

 limbs and in other parts of the body not paralysed. After one, 

 two or three minutes, these movements cease, and there are only 

 some tremblings in the muscles of these parts. The paralysed 

 limb has no movement at all during one or two minutes, after 

 which time, suddenly, contractions in many bundles of muscular 

 fibres partially take place. In the same bundle the contractions 

 sometimes appear to come regularly one after the other. In 

 some cases I have seen, besides these tremblings, movements of 

 the entire limb, consisting of some successive flexions and exten- 

 sions of the limb, and after these movements had ceased, con- 

 tractions limited to various bundles of fibres appeared. In these 

 cases the action of the muscles began very late after death, and 

 once, only six minutes after the beginning of asphyxia, which 

 lasted two minutes and a half. 



b. Nearly the same movements of which I have spoken as 

 existing frequently in the face, during life, in rabbits and guinea- 

 pigs, after the section of the facial nerves, exist always, either 

 during agony or a little after death. They are generally pro- 

 duced by partial contractions and relaxations of the different 

 bundles of fibres of the various muscles. It is rare to see all 

 the bundles composing one muscle contracting together. These 

 phenomena last five, six or eight minutes after the last respi- 

 ration. There are also such movements in the face during agony 

 and after death, when the nerves have not been cut and when 

 there is no paralysis ; but then the movements appear later and 

 do not last so long as in paralysed muscles. 



c. I have seen in many rabbits apparently spontaneous rhyth- 

 mical contractions in the respiratory muscles. In about ten 

 rabbits, out of forty or fifty, the following phenomena were 

 very decided ; on the others they were slight, and sometimes 

 very slight, but in all cases a part of them always existed. 

 I open the abdominal cavity and expose the bowels to the action 

 of a cold atmosphere, so as to lower the temperature of the 

 animal ; after some minutes I make a little opening in one side 

 of the chest, and, at last, after a few minutes more, I open 

 largely one side of the chest. Generally, in such circumstances, 

 the respiratory movements continue to take place with energy. 



