4-60 SYMPATHY. 



nection whatever with respiration. The motor nerves of respir- 

 ation conspire in operation for a particular end. But so do the 

 nerves of all other muscles: those of the lower extremity in 

 walking, those of the upper and lower end of the trunk in rising from 

 the recumbent posture. For any particular action whatever, instinc- 

 tive or arbitrary, association of the action of the nerves of sets of 

 muscles takes place. As to their action being instinctive and in- 

 voluntary, the action of every voluntary muscle may be instinctive 

 and involuntary; and is always involuntary if a motive of great 

 strength exists. We breathe or wink unconsciously or involun- 

 tarily ; so also may we run, withdraw an arm, leg, or whole body, 

 unconsciously or involuntarily. It is true that respiration con- 

 tinues during sleep and a certain degree of coma ; but other 

 associated actions do the same which are voluntary. Patients 

 will move any part unconsciously, if you make it uneasy during 

 sleep : they will swallow in apoplexy till near death. Poor chil- 

 dren, when fast asleep through fatigue, will continue to move their 

 hands and fingers as if at work, even after the machines of their 

 unprincipled employers have stopped. u Having begun any mus- 

 cular actions, we continue them often unconsciously if our at- 

 tention is directed to something else, and, on its ceasing to be so 

 directed, we may be surprised to find what we are doing. Then as 

 to the muscles supplied by these nerves being respiratory, there 

 is hardly a muscle in the body which may not be respiratory. In 

 dyspnoea, more and more muscles are employed in proportion to 

 the difficulty, till at length almost every muscle of the four ex- 

 tremities may be called in to give assistance. With respect to 

 expression, every other voluntary muscle may give expression as 

 well as those which are moved by the voluntary nerves above 

 enumerated. In despair, we as instinctively wring our hands as 

 we lengthen our features and bewail ; in rage, we as instinctively 

 clench our hands and toss our arms as we knit our brows and 

 project our lips and vociferate; in joy, we as instinctively move 

 briskly as we laugh ; in surprise, we instinctively depress our 

 lower jaw: motions in none of which respiratory nerves have 

 any share. I see no difference in the agency of these nerves and 

 of all other nerves of voluntary motion. Lastly, the glosso- 

 pharyngeal appears now to be a pair not of motion, but of sense, 



u Report of the Factory Commissioners, 1833. The inhuman facts detailed 

 in this report cover our Christian country with shame, and may be retorted by 

 Continental vivisectors with triumph against us. 



