396 Dr. C. S. Sherrington. Experiments on the Value of 



after the possibihty of vasomotor reaction had been set aside, and 

 after the vastly larger portion of all visceral reaction had also been 

 removed. 



All the evidence I obtained from all the dogs went absolutely con- 

 cordantly to show that in spite of exclusion of such a huge field of 

 vascular, visceral, cutaneous, and motor reaction the emotional states 

 of anger, delight at being caressed by the master or at approach of a 

 friend, fear, and disgust were developed with as far as could be seen 

 unlessened strength. The horripilation of the coat along the crest of 

 the back between the shoulders, so usual an accompaniment of anger 

 in the dog, was of course absent in these dogs, the spinal pilomotor"^ 

 nerve-fibres having had all connection with the brain ruptured. But 

 absence of this reaction could not for a moment mask emotional dis- 

 turbance so vividly indicated by other features of expression. Eegard- 

 ing emotions of fear and disgust, the former was evoked by threatening 

 with the voice or gesturing with a whip, the latter by the expedient 

 of substituting dog's-flesh for horse- and ox-flesh in the dog's food-pan. 

 Few dogs, even when hungry, can be prevailed on even to touch dog's- 

 flesh as food ; almost all turn away from it at once with obvious signs 

 of repugnance and dislike. Fear and disgust in answer to these tests 

 seemed as indubitable in these dogs as in normal. Great care was 

 taken throughout not to establish in the dogs under observation by 

 too frequent repetition or encouragement a habit or trick of response 

 by emotional signs that might thus become so to say pseudo-emotional 

 with the artificiality of an acted performance. No employment of 

 the special tests for eliciting the emotions was made in them until 

 after performance of the spinal section. Even then the tests were 

 never frequently rehearsed ; nor were the animals ever encouraged 

 or incited to respond unduly or in a particular manner. It was sought 

 to as far as possible approximate the tests to natui*al incidents, and 

 to as far as possible collect the observations from natural incidents. 



The above was the condition found to obtain in the animals after the 

 cervical spinal transection. I then proceeded in two animals to carry 

 the test further by additional severance of both the vagi nerves in 

 the neck. The vagus may be regarded as the great visceral unit of the 

 cranial series of nerves. Its section subsequent to prethoracic spinal 

 transection relegates to the field of insentience the stomach, the 

 lungs, and the heart, in addition to the other viscera previously 

 rendered apsestheticf It also limits still more narrowly the number 



* Langley and Sherrington, ' Journal of Physiology,' Cambridge and London, 

 1891. 



f By apsesthetic is meant not only devoid of sensitivity but deprived of all con- 

 nection with the nervous centres necessary to conscious reaction, a meaning for 

 •which the word apcesthesia was suggested by Dr. Mott and myself, these ' Pro- 

 ceedings,' vol. 56, 1895. 



