( 83 ) 



This view he proposed in a treatise entitled An Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain, 

 submitted for the Observation of the Author's Friends (Miiller). 



" On laying bare the roots of the spinal nerves, I found that I could cut across the 

 posterior fasciculus of nerves, which took its origin from the posterior portion of the 

 spinal marrow, without convulsing the muscles of the back ; but that on touching the 

 anterior fasciculus with the point of a knife, the muscles of the back were immediately 

 convulsed." (See British and Foreign Quarterly Review, 1840.) 



" Recently a discovery has been made which in the history of Physiology ranks 

 second only to the discovery of the circulation of the blood ; it is that the nerves which 

 arise by an anterior and a posterior root from the spinal cord derive their power of 

 exciting contractions from the anterior root, and their power of sensation from the 

 posterior root. This discovery is due to Bell. I have since proved that the chemical 

 and galvanic stimuli, applied to the posterior root, have no power of exciting 

 contraction in the muscles to which the spinal nerves are distributed." (Midler's Physiol. 

 p. 204, 2nd ed. 1840, trans, by W. Baly.) " Bell, with Miiller and Magendie, gave the 

 fundamental distinction between motor and sensory fibres, and showed that the anterior 

 root of a spinal nerve was motor and the posterior sensory, which was confirmed by the 

 strictest experimental evidence by Magendie in 1822." 



FRANCOIS MAGENDIE. 



1783-1855. 



BORN in the same town as Black — in Bordeaux — in 1783, 

 Magendie inherited from his father a bias towards medicine. 

 He early directed his attention to experimental physiology. 

 His earliest work (1808), was on the functions of the soft palate. 

 From 1816 he became one of the greatest experimental physiologists 

 of his time. He was also physician to La Salpetriere (1826), and 

 thus his researches deal not only with pure physiology, but also with 

 experimental pathology and toxicology. His name stands out boldly 

 amongst the Professors of the College de France, as successor to 

 J. R6camier, 1774-1856, Professor of Physiology and General Patho- 

 logy. Along with A. Desmoulins, he published Anatomie des Systemes 

 nerveux des Animaux aVertebres, with plates, 1825— these plates might 

 with advantage be consulted at the present time — and in 1842, 

 Phenormnes physiques de la Vie. 



He confirmed by experiment the functions of the anterior and 

 posterior spinal nerve roots (1822), so that not unfrequently Bell's law 

 is spoken of as " Bell-Magendie law." In so doing he discovered 

 the fact of "recurrent sensibility" in connection with the anterior root 

 of a spinal nerve. The exact conditions were determined more 

 exactly by Bernard in 1847. 



His Precis elementaire de Physiologie (1816) to my mind repre- 

 sents the embodiment of methodical order in the arrangement of the 

 subject-matter. The doctrine of tissues, however, is still that of 

 Bichat. The experiments on absorption are fundamental. 



