SiGERsoN — On the Study of Nerve- Action. 271 



certain diversity in the distribution of the terminal nerve-fila- 

 ments ? 



5°. Stimulation of the chorda tympani, when sufficiently strong, 

 causes a flow of saliva into the buccal cavity from the sub-maxillary 

 glands. This phenomena is in conformity with the discovery of 

 Claude Bernard, that section of the chorda determines cessation of 

 secretion in this gland — a discovery which demonstrated the existence 

 of a filament of communication with the sub-maxillary gland, which 

 Cruveilhier had disputed. Dr. Duchenne (de Boulogne) has stated 

 that he did not notice this salivation until his attention had been 

 called to Claude Bernard's experiment, and even then but rarely. 

 For myself, I have frequently observed the occurrence of this phe- 

 nomenon (which is not, however, constant). This was due, in part, I 

 have no doubt, to the fact that I found it possible to use more 

 stimulant power than he was in the habit of employing. 



6°. Pinally, I have ascertained that excitation of the chorda 

 tympani is occasionally represented by motion in the region of the 

 tongue supplied by the nerve operated on. Care was, of course, taken to 

 exclude all sources of error from involuntary movements of the 

 tongue. This phenomenon was not discovered by Dr. Duchenne (de 

 Boulogne), owing, doubtless, to the slight intensity of the current he 

 employed in such cases ; nor has it been noticed in experiments on 

 animals. However, after having carefully studied the production of 

 slight tremulation in the case of others (and sometimes a certain 

 alteration of shape in the tongue), under the influence of strong 

 stimulation of the nerve in question, I controlled and verified the 

 results by experiments on myself. Consequently, I believe, it may be 

 accepted as a fact, that stimulation of the chorda tympani causes not 

 only sensations of taste, astringency, dryness, roughness, prickling, 

 to be produced, as likewise salivation, but that it also causes the 

 production of a certain feeble motion — in other words, that it is 

 not only a nerve of special and general sensibility, and of secre- 

 tion, but also that it possesses some few feeble motor filaments, which 

 may, in fact, be derived from the facialis, from which it obtains no 

 taste-filaments. 



B, I. A. PROC, SER. II., VOL. III. — SCIENCE. 



