THE SPINAL CORD AND CEREBELLUM 151 



of the heart, and sometimes of the tissues in general, 

 unless it be through the medium of the nervous 

 control to which these factors are subjected in 

 common ? 



Eeturning to the muscular portion of the mechanism The ohemi- 



oal or 



of equilibration, we meet ■with fresh evidence, if rightly nutritive 



influence 



read, of the nutritive function of the cerebellum. Full of the cere- 

 of meaning in this respect are the words of an equiUbra- 

 eminent French physiologist.* ' Like all the organic 

 properties,' he says, ' contractibility has nutrition for 

 necessary basis. It cannot be accomplished without 

 influencing the double assimilation and disassimilation 

 indispensable to the maintenance of the life of the 

 muscular tissue. Every contraction corresponds to a 

 more energetic oxidation, to a more active assimilation, 

 to the formation and the elimination of disassimilated 

 products. The result is manifested immediately in 

 the vertebrates by changes in the colour, the com- 

 position, and the temperature of the blood which 

 comes from it, which is almost as rutilant as the 

 fresh and oxygenated blood brought by the artery. 

 The phenomenon is more marked still in the case of 

 paralysis, in certain maladies which produce muscular 

 atony in syncope. The explanation is that muscle, in 

 its state of rest, is at its minimum of consumption, of 

 life, of contraction ; it absorbs nothing more than is 

 strictly necessary to its maintenance. 



On the other hand, when the muscle contracts, it 

 wears itself, it expends itself, it absorbs and eliminates 

 * Letoumeau, 'Biology,' pp. 354, 355 (translation). 



