MY PREDECESSORS. 381 



proved this in various ways, the most conchisive being a com- 

 plete section of all the wliite fibrous substance, Avhich left 

 only the grey substance : in this case sensibility and motion 

 remamed intact. No part of the white substance is capable 

 of transmitting impressions. " C'est par la substance grise 

 de la nioelle ^pinifere, et surtout par sa partie centrale, que 

 cette transmission a I'encephale s'opfere en dernier lieu." * 



There are several points in M. Brown-Sequard's experi- 

 ments which disturb the reigning doctrine of nerve-action, but 

 he has not yet published his positive views on this subject ; 

 and as it is a subject of which I have no direct knowledge, 

 I shall only say that the facts I have discovered, proving 

 fibres not to be necessary to the transmission of impressions, 

 must be taken into account, not only in this, but in most 

 other questions of the kind. 



But before we proceed further it will be requisite to ascer- 

 tain, as far as possible, whether the facts I have discovered 

 had been already made public. When Europe furnishes its 

 hundreds of diligent workers in any department, no one can 

 expect to stand in isolated originality ; he must be prepared 

 to find that others have more or less anticipated him. I had 

 no sort of doiibt that the facts, which to me were full of 

 significance, must have been observed by others ; but I was 

 persuaded that no one had seen their significance, because no 

 one expressed a doubt respecting the theory which they 

 undermine.f My first step was to send to England for Ley- 



* Brown-Sequard, MSmoires de la Society de Biologie, 1855 (2''°" S€rie, ii. 

 p. 7'i.) See also tho masterly report by M. Paul Broca in the same volume. 



+ We need only turn to Funke's Lchrhuch der Physiolorjie, one of the ablest 

 and must erudite, as well as the latest of treatises, to be assured of this. 



