[ 33 ] 
Bat though the heart and inteflines remained 
equally unaffected in all the tryals I made by thruft- 
rng the probe into the fpinal marrow, the following 
contractions occalioned by it deferve particular enu- 
meration. 
All the limbs were violently convulfed. 
The mufcles of the neck were convulfed, and thfr 
fpine bent as in the opifthotonos. 
The intercoftal mufcles were all contracted j and; 
their natural aCtion (that of drawing all the ribs 
nearer each other and the fummit of the thorax); 
rendered matter of ocular demonftration. 
The diaphragm was contracted ftrongly, notwith- 
ftanding the phrenic nerve of one fide was divided 
in making fimilar experiments, by pricking- and 
ff retching it j which, by the way, conftantly occa-- 
lioned a convulfive contraction of the diaphragm. 
Even by plungingthe probe into the brain, after 
the head had been cut off for fome minutes, the- 
tongue, and fome other mufcles were made to con- 
tract. 
But thefe experiments muff be made in lefs than 
a quarter of an hour after decapitation ; half an hour: 
afterwards no fuch effects follow the deftru&ion of. 
the fpinal marrow. And they fucceed beff by pre-- 
vioufiy opening the ventricles of the heart.. 
Experiments fimilar to thefe have been made upon 
frogs, by Stuart, Baron Haller, and Dr. Whytt, andi 
others. “ When I opened” (fays the laff of thefe 
ingenious gentlemen) <{ the thorax of a frog, im- 
** mediately after decollation and deftroying its fpinal i 
44 marrow, I oblerved its heart beating at the. rate of 
** 60 in a minute, which is four or five, pulfations- 
Vol. LX, F « lefs 
