Ill 



acid, may excite powerful movements. It is known that when 

 we open the abdomen of an animal immediately, or a short time, 

 after death, we generally see considerable movements in the 

 bowels. These movements have been attributed to the action of 

 air, or to that of cold, on the bowels. This is not a right view. 

 A sudden exposure to a cold atmosphere may, possibly, produce 

 contractions in the bowels ; but certainly cold is not the ordinary 

 cause of these movements. At first, they may exist in a warm 

 atmosphere, and then they appear to be more rapid than in a 

 cold atmosphere. Besides, the bowels may be exposed to a cold 

 atmosphere, and remain motionless, although they have their en- 

 tire irritability. As to atmospheric air, it is not able to excite a 

 movement in the bowels. If we open the abdomen of a living 

 animal, in avoiding to excite mechanically the bowels, and in al- 

 lowing the animal to breathe freely, we may for a long time see 

 no other movement in the bowels, except, sometimes, slight re- 

 gular and natural peristaltic motions, depending on digestion, 

 and limited to some small parts of the bowels. The animal must 

 be kept on his back, and we must avoid touching the bowels, be- 

 cause a slight contact is sufficient to produce movement. Now, 

 if we prevent the animal from breathing, we see, after ten, fif- 

 teen, or twenty seconds, very violent, sudden, and rapid contrac- 

 tions taking place in all parts of the intestine, from the stomach 

 to the rectum, but much more in the small intestine than else- 

 where. These movements are quite different from the digestive 

 peristaltic movements. If the animal is allowed to breathe again, 

 and freely, the movements diminish gradually, and disappear 

 almost entirely after a few minutes. Then, if we prevent it 

 again to breathe, we see the movements produced again. This 

 experiment may be repeated many times, with the same result, 

 on the same animal. 



We are certainly entitled to conclude that there is an exciting 

 cause of contractions, developed during asphyxia, and that it is 

 neither the cold nor the atmospheric air which produces in all 

 cases the movements of the bowels after the opening of the abdo- 

 men. We may draw the same conclusions from another experi- 

 ment. If we put a tie around the trachea of a living animal, 

 immediately after expiration, we may see and feel violent move- 

 ments taking place in the bowels, although the abdomen is not 



