THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DEATH. 313 
the body of a criminal that had remained more than an hour 
hanging on the gallows. One of the poles of a battery of 
seven hundred pairs having been connected with the spinal 
marrow below the nape of the neck, and the other brought 
in contact with the heel, the leg, before bent back on itself, 
was thrust violently forward, almost throwing down one of 
the assistants, who had hard work to keep it in place. 
When one of the poles was placed on the seventh rib, and’ 
the other on one of the nerves of the neck, the chest rose 
and fell, and the abdomen repeated the like movement, as 
takes place in respiration. On touching a nerve of the 
eyebrow at the same time with the head, the facial muscles 
contracted. ‘‘ Wrath, terror, despair, anguish, and fright- 
ful grins, blended in horrible expression on the assassin’s 
countenance.” 
The most remarkable instance of a momentary reappear- 
ance of vital properties, not in the whole organism, but in 
the head alone, is the famous experiment suggested by 
Legallois, and carried out for the first time in 1858 by 
Brown-Séquard. This skillful physiologist beheads a dog, 
taking pains to make the section below the point at which 
the vertebral arteries enter their bony sheath. Ten min- 
utes afterward he sends the galvanic current into the dif- 
ferent parts of the head thus severed from its body, with- 
out producing any result of movement. He then fits to 
the four arteries, the extremities of which appear in the 
cutting of the neck, little pipes connected by tubes with a 
reservoir full of fresh oxygenated blood, and guides the in- 
jection of this blood into the vessels of the brain. Imme- 
diately irregular motions of the eyes and the facial mus- 
cles occur, succeeded by the appearance of regular harmo- 
nious contractions, seeming to be prompted by the will. 
The head has regained life. The motions continue to be 
performed during a quarter of an hour, while the injection 
of blood into the cerebral arteries lasts. On stopping the 
