106 



traction, i. e. to find out its cause and the circumstances which 

 favor or are opposed to its existence ; besides, he has not demon- 

 strated that the peristaltic contraction is entirely independent of 

 the nervous system. 



6. Spontaneous rhythmical movements in the crop and oeso- 

 phagus of pigeons and other birds. I have found that if the crop 

 of a bird, and more particularly of a pigeon, is opened during 

 digestion, some rhythmical movements are frequently seen in it 

 and in the oesophagus. Ordinarily these movements are perfectly 

 regular. They begin in the upper part of the crop, and are pro- 

 pagated from there to the oesophagus. If the animal is asphyx- 

 iated, these contractions become very energetic. Their ordinary 

 number, in a minute, varies from ten to twenty. 



I have ascertained that these rhythmical movements take 

 place as well in a crop and oesophagus separated from the animal, 

 as in these same parts left in situ. Therefore, the nervous cen- 

 tres are not the source from which originates the excitation which 

 acts on the muscular fibres to put them in contraction. 



7. Spontaneous movements in limbs of persons who have died 

 of cholera. It is known that after death by cholera, the whole 

 body, and more particularly the limbs, have sometimes very con- 

 siderable movements. In some cases I have seen alternative 

 movements of flexion and extension of the arms or of the legs, 

 even three hours after the cessation of the beatings of the heart. 

 Physicians who know how quickly after death the nervous system 

 loses its vital powers, will admit easily that these movements can- 

 not be the result of an action of that system. I have ascertained 

 on more than sixty bodies of men who died of cholera, or of 

 various other diseases, that a short time before, or a very short 

 time after the cessation of the beatings of the heart, no reflex 



put a ligature around the carotid and vertebral arteries, we find, when pul- 

 monary insufflation is made carefully, that two important phenomena take 

 place one is a gradual rapid loss of temperature, if the atmosphere is cold, 

 (this is the well known fact discovered by Sir B. Brodie,) and the other is a 

 gradual and considerable increase of the reflex faculty. It has been in 

 such cases that I have found the greatest degrees of reflex power in mam- 

 mals. The nervous power accumulates to such an extent in the spinal cord, 

 that if we pinch the skin in any part of the body, but more particularly on 

 the chest and on the anterior limbs, a reflex respiratory movement takes 

 place. 



