448 FANCIED FUNCTIONS OF 



cells of the lungs, the stomach, and the upper part of the small 

 intestines : and that the motion of the lower part of the small 

 intestines, of the large intestines, the bladder, and uterus, is de- 

 pendent upon the spinal chord. That the action of the bladder 

 and the lower part of the large intestine depends upon the spinal 

 chord cannot be doubted ; because the functions of the bladder 

 and rectum are carried on with sensation and volition. If these 

 parts are paralysed, the rest of the large intestines and the ad- 

 joining portion of the small will suffer accumulation, from which 

 he drew his inference, though they themselves be not paralysed. 

 The regular contraction of the stomach ceased indeed after the divi- 

 sion of the pneumono-gastric; but the stomach was not paralysed, 

 for it acted antiperistaltically after the division. This he ascribes 

 to irritation of the divided end of the nerve. But such an irritation 

 ought as readily to have excited the regular contraction of the 

 stomach. Dr. Wilson Philip denies that the division paralyses 

 the muscular coat of the stomach ; and Drs. Leuret and Lassaigne 

 say the paralysis is confined to the cardia. If Dr. Brachet is 

 right in his fact, still some might say it was through the division 

 of the ganglionic nerves united with the pneumono-gastric that 

 the paralysis was occasioned. The instant cessation of the motion 

 of the heart on the removal of the cardiac ganglion may be 

 ascribed, I have already said, to the shock as probably as to the 

 absence of the ganglion. d 



d I will not presume to doubt Dr. Brachet's fidelity, but his results all square 

 so wonderfully, except where he is not aware they do not, that confirmation 

 would be desirable, were it not for the torture necessary. Some points, however, 

 in his experiments I do not comprehend. In one experiment (Ixxxiv.) we saw 

 that, after the division of the pneumono-gastric, a puppy might have its head 

 plunged in water without making any effort to raise it and to breathe ; yet in other 

 instances (xl. and xli.) puppies made violent efforts to inspire. He does not explain 

 the difference, but explains the efforts to breathe on the score of habit. The ex- 

 planation I attempted of the difference (supra, p. 434.) may not be satisfactory to all. 

 When wishing to show that the secretion and discharge of semen are independent 

 of the encephalo-spinal nerves, he mentions the case of a man completely para- 

 plegic, and as high as all the lower fourth of the abdomen, without any sensibility 

 of the external parts, or the interior of the rectum or urethra : and yet the man 

 had two children in the time. How the necessary movements were performed, 

 without voluntary power of the lower parts, and how ejaculation could occur 

 without sensation of the external parts or urethra, I cannot imagine. He reduced 



poor torn cat to the same situation by dividing the spine in the lumbar region. 

 Here he allow hat the necessary movements were impossible. However, he sup- 



