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THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



39 



''Sis of 



motot 



P^irt of 



y severed f. 



X 



% 



'"icverthel 



I 



ess 



spinal cord 

 : skin 



I 



again 



was practically dead ^ but for the fact that the heart still 

 exhibited feeble contractions 2, although the presence of 

 the ligature still prevented the egress of blood from its 

 cavities. In this condition the frog might be allowed 

 to remain for even three or four hours ; and yet, when 

 the ligature was removed, the heart still continuing to 

 beat, the circulation soon became completely re-estab- 

 lished. The other vital functions reappeared much more 



tions of the 

 modifiable 

 :ley Cooper k 



slowly. 



After about half-an-hour the first signs of 



respiratory movements showed themselves — at first at 

 irregular and distant intervals, and then, gradually, with 

 their accustomed rhythm. But it was not till after about 

 two hours more that the spinal cord, as a whole, re- 

 in by compre gained its excitability, and that reflex movements were 

 the animal' producible by irritation of the skin. Later still, the 



rabbit 



COmp:; 



,e stupor or c 

 sion vvasrei 

 this wasl 

 oi life. ' 



as 



power of voluntary movement was resumed, and the pre- 

 viously dead animal was seen to have recovered all its 

 vital powers ^. 



/ 



signs 



The animal, as a whole, was certainly dead, although it retained 



have yieWed- within itself the potentiality of living. Life might be renewed, if its 



)cd the cir 

 ally, by 



/*■ 



1 



es 



tissues and organs were again exposed to fitting conditions, but not 

 otherwise. 



* We have seen, already, how long even in the human subject signs 

 • P.C0- °^ vitality remain in the right auricle of the heart. All this is much more 

 I nlS manifest in the Amphibia, and, from what has been stated above, we 



nifestatiO''^' ^^'^ Q"ly conclude that the cardiac ganglia, in these creatures as well as in 



others, are capable of retaining their vital properties longer than the 

 spinal centres. 



3 M. Gavarret calls attention to the Memoir of Legallois published 

 in 181 2, ' Sur le Principe de la Vie,' in which he showed a rare insight 

 and prescience. Legallois said {OEuvres, t. i. p. 131) :— ' Si Ton pouvait 

 suppleer au coeur par une sorte d'injection et si en mSme temps on avait, 



#• 



the 



( 



tations 

 11 afte^ 



' signs 0^ \ 

 1 and th^ ' 



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n 



