96 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



not only arrest movements, but also the secretions, as of the saliva, etc. M. 

 Brown Sequard affirms, that under influences of various natures, the normal 

 properties of nerves and muscles can be affected: in one sense, abolished, that is 

 to say, suspended; in the other, intensified, to an incredible degree. In other 

 words, under the influence of an irritation, external or direct, certain parts of 

 the nervous system gain or lose functional energy. What is the source of these 

 sudden variations, whose rapidity is next to electricity ? We know nothing, or 

 rather we know, they are independent of a flux and reflux of the blood, and con- 

 sequently a local nutrition, exaggerated or reduced. 



GeneraUy when there is an increase of energy on one side, there is a diminu- 

 tion on the other; this special activity arises suddenly, without any ordinary 

 chemical work and without combustion. Brown Sequard states there is in real- 

 ity no transport of force from one point to another at all, while the mechanism of 

 the effects remains not the least obscure. When the skin of certain nervous re- 

 gions is irritated, its nervous power is ten times more exaggerated than in the 

 normal state. In the case of a dog, the sensibility can be so affected as to cause 

 the respiratory movements to augment from 15 to 180 per minute. As during 

 life, so in case of death, the same changes are observable, in the latter, the 

 cadaverous rigidity quickly ensues, to be speedily followed by putrefaction where 

 there is a diminution of nervous energy in the muscles, the contrary being the 

 result where there is an excess. The augmentation of power in the spinal mar- 

 row, is notorious in the condition of ecstacy. In the case of an individual in 

 the hypnotised state, the nervous energy of the hearing power can be so aug- 

 mented, that the ticking of a watch can be distinguished at thirteen yards, while 

 the ordinary distance is but one yard ; similarly, the sensation of smell can detect 

 the odor of a rose at sixteen yards, and the heat of the breath at thirty three 

 yards. In extreme excitability, the hypnotised can suddenly f?ll into a condi- 

 tion of muscular rigidity and absolute torpor. Feeling is so abolished, that the 

 subject fails to hear when a pistol is fired off close to the ear ; he experiences no 

 sensation of odor, of heat or of cold ; he is insensible, even when pricked with a 

 pin or galvanized. But when the slightest current of air is passed over any or- 

 gan having been deprived of its normal activity, it will instantly recover not only 

 its insensibility, but be followed by so intense an excitability, as to cause the ri- 

 gidity of the neighboring muscles to cease. Dr. DumontpoUier has illustrated 

 this by his " bellows" blowing on hypnotic patients; the ear that was dead to a 

 pistol shot, when it receives a slight current of air, perceives the most delicate 

 noise; a rose, assafoetida, ammonia, that produced hitherto no effect, can be 

 felt at a distance of sixteen yards after a current of air has blown into the nostrils; 

 similarly a whiff of air restores perception to the eye. The movements of respi- 

 ration, of the heart ; the faculty of speech, of memory, can be made to rapidly 

 disappear and as rapidly return. These experiences are produced daily in the 

 hospitals of Paris, and in part by professional magnetisers. M, DumontpoUier 

 has also shown, that the artificial suspension of the senses, due to physical action 



