Sensibility after Section of Cutaneous Nerve. 69 



to rabbits employed in another experiment where, in somewhat 

 larger doses, it rapidly produced toxic symptoms. 



The number of animals used in this experiment is, of course, 

 too small on which to base any definite statement, but in the 

 thyroidectomized group of males it appears to point to the fact 

 that thyroid feeding does prevent the enlargement of the pituitary 

 which would otherwise follow on removal of the thyroid. 



41 (858) 



Method in the investigation of sensibility after the section of a 

 cutaneous nerve. (Preliminary communication.) 



By Edwin G. Boring. 



[From the Physiological Laboratory, Medical College, Cornell 

 University, Ithaca, N. Y.] 



The difficulty of obtaining from clinical subjects, untrained in 

 introspection, reliable accounts of the changes in cutaneous sensi- 

 bility occurring during the regeneration of a cutaneous nerve has 

 been partially obviated by Head 1 and by Trotter and Davies 2 

 through the use of the experimental method with themselves as 

 subjects. These observers, however, did not take the precaution 

 to make sure of their own ability to give the most accurate descrip- 

 tions of cutaneous complexes, nor did they work with areas small 

 enough to permit the application of the most exact experimental 

 methods available. For this reason the writer has sought to 

 conduct an experiment with such changes in procedure as should 

 make for a more detailed and thorough description of the sensa- 

 tions involved. The writer acted as subject, and the conditions 

 of the experiment were established by a section of the anterior 

 branch of the internal cutaneous nerve. The following points 

 may be noted : 



1. A special attempt was made, during the year preceding the 

 operation, to train the subject in the observation of cutaneous 

 sensation and in the analysis of the sensational complexes mediated 

 by the normal skin. Care was taken to distinguish between the 



1 Brain, 28, 1905, 99; 31, 1908, 323. 



2 Jour. Physiol., 38, 1909, 134. 



