96 MEMOIR OF MAGENDIE. 



he even substitutes for the veins a quiU, since the walls of the veins might pos- 

 sibly still contain some lymphatic branches ; absorption takes place as rapidly 

 as usual, and thus absorption by the veins is demonstrated. 



At all times there have been useful dissidents who have seemed charged with 

 the function of keeping our learned corporations aAvake. Such an one, among 

 the predecessors of Magendie, was the physician Chirac, who had heretofore 

 maintained before the assembled faculty that the stomach remains inactive in 

 vomiting. Death had overtaken Chirac before he could conclusively verify the 

 fact, bo favorable an opportunity could not escape M. Magendie ; he proved, 

 by a decisive experiment, that Chirac was right, and that in the act of vomiting 

 the stomach does in fact remain inactive.* 



In a multiplied series of labors, t one of the most ingenious is that which he 

 made public, in 1817, on the elasticity of the arteries. Doubts were still enter- 

 tained respecting the precise faculty by which the arteries co-operate in the 

 movement of the blood. By some it was maintained that they were irritahlc 

 or contractile like the muscles; by others that they vrere altogether j9«s5^^:e. M. 

 Magendie proved that they are active, but in a manner which is peculiar to 



passnge to the poison. In order to remove this difficulty, I repeated on another dog the pre- 

 ceding experiment, with this modification, that I introduced into the crural artery a small 

 quill, on Avhich I secured this vessel by two ligatures ; the artery was then cut circularly be- 

 tween the two ligatures ; the same thing was done for the crural vein : hj this means there 

 was no longer communication between the thigh and the rest of the body, if not by the 

 arterial blood which flowed to the thigh and the A'enous wdiich returned to the trunk. The 

 poison, afterwards introduced into the paw, produced its effects in the usual time — tliat is, at 

 the end of about four minutes." (Magendie, Precis Elementaire de Physiologic, t. II, p. 265, 

 third edition.) 



■* " It had been long thought that vomiting depended on the sudden and convulsive con- 

 traction of the stomach; but I have shown that this viscus is nearly passive in the act, and 

 that the true agents in vomiting are, on the one hand, the diaphragm, and, on the other, the 

 large muscles of the abdomen ; I have even succeeded in producing it when, in a living dog, 

 I substituted for the stomach the bladder of a hog which I afterwards filled with a colored 

 liquid." (Magendie, Precis Elcm. dc Physiologic, t. ll, p. 154.) 



t It will not be oixt of place to give here a summary account of a few among the nirmerous 

 works of Magendie not alluded to in the text. — Memoire sur Vusagc dc Vepiglolte dans la de- 

 glutition, 18] 3. From the experiments of this memoir, the author concludes: 1st, that the 

 epiglottis is not indispensable to the integrity of deglutition ; 2dly, that it is especially the 

 movement by which the glottis is closed that guards the larynx during the passage of ali- 

 ments sw'allowed. — Memoire sur les images qui sc formcnt aufond de Vccil et sur un moyen 

 tressimple de les apercevoir, 1813. This means consists in making use, for the examination 

 of the images formed at the bottom of the eye, of the eyes of albino animals, (rabbits, 

 pigeons, &c.,) in which the sclerotic coat is transpai^ent. — De I'lnflucnce de Vemetique sur 

 Vhoinme et les animaux, 1813. — Memoire sur I'ccsophagc ct scs fonctions, ]813. — Memoire sur 

 la deglutition dc fair almosphcrique, 1813. These three memoirs complete the Memoire sur 

 Ic vomissemcnt. — Memoire sur les proprietes nutritives des substances qui nc conticnnent pas 

 d'' azote, 1816. The result of this investigation is that substances which do not contain azote 

 (sugar, gum, &c. ) are improper for nutrition. Although the animals submitted to experi- 

 ment were allowed these substances at discretion, and even consumed much of them, they 

 did not the less certainly die of inanition at the end of some days. Still further, it is shown 

 that whatever the aliments employed, whether azotized or not, it is necessary to vary them. 

 "A rabbit and a Guinea pig, nourished with a single substance, such as wheat, oats, barley, 

 cabbage, carrots, &c., die, saysM, Magendie,' with all the appearances of inanition, usually 

 in a fortnight, but sometimes mirch sooner. Nourished with the same substances given con- 

 currently, or successively at short intervals, these animals live and thrive. The most gen- 

 eral and essential consequence to be deduced from these facts is that diversity of aliments is 

 a most important rule of hygiene." (Prtcis element, de physiologic, t. il, p. 504, 505.) — 

 Rechtrches physiologiques et medicates sur les symptomes et le traitement de la gravelle, 1818. 

 '•The persons attacked by gout and gravel, ".says M. Magendie, "are ordinarily great eaters 

 of flesh, fish, cheese and other substances abounding in azote, (nitrogen.) Most of the 

 urinary gravels, a part of the urinary calculi, arthritic tophus, are formed by uric acid — a 

 principle which contains much azote. By diminishing in the regimen the proportion of 

 azotized aliments, we succeed in preventing and even curing gout and gravel." (Precis 

 element, de physiologic, t. II, p. 503.) — Recherches physiques et physiologiques sur Vipecacuana, 

 1816. The result of these researches, made in common with M. Pelletier, was the discovery 

 of the active principle of ipecacuanha or emetine. 



