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important, because if the theory, which I am about to propose, 

 be true, we ought to see a contraction produced in the bronchial 

 tubes, in consequence of the unusual amount of carbonic acid 

 that they contain. Now, such a contraction certainly exists then, 

 and it is it which causes the well-known difficulty in the expan- 

 sion of the chest, which exists in that case. 



In the eyes, even when they are paralysed by the section of 

 the three nerves of the iris, (the third pair, the sympathetic, in 

 the neck, and the ophthalmic nerve,) the pupil may, at first, con- 

 tract and afterwards dilate very much. 



The lymphatics and the thoracic duct contract very much after 

 death. I have, sometimes, in cases where these vessels were 

 dilated by chyle, introduced a glass tube, two lines in diameter, 

 into the thoracic duct, and I have seen the liquid ascend into the 

 tube, and in one case run out, although the tube was five inches 

 high. 



The cilia are known to have movements independent of the 

 nervous system. 



The gall-bladder contracts little and slowly, but evidently, 

 after death, even when it has been, with the liver, removed from 

 the abdomen and separated from the nervous centres. 



The choledoch duct and the pancreatic duct, as my friend CI. 

 Bernard has discovered, have rhythmical contractions during life, 

 in birds. I have found these movements perfectly regular after 

 I had removed all the viscera from the abdomen. Therefore the 

 cause of these rhythmical contractions is not in the nervous 

 centres. 



The bowels have considerable contractions during agony and 

 after death ; and I will prove hereafter that the cause of these 

 movements is not the influence of cold, or that of air, when they 

 are exposed to the atmosphere. Nurses, in France, are in the 

 habit of judging that death has positively taken place, when, 

 after the cessation of breathing, they see urine and foecal matters 

 expelled. This expulsion depends upon the contractions then 

 taking place in the bladder and in the bowels. 



9. Causes of the apparently spontaneous contractions during 

 life and after death. All the contractions of which I have 

 spoken, appear to me to be produced by an excitation made upon 

 the contractile tissues by a substance existing in the blood, and 



