ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
26(j 
had been superficially taught, simple nerves of animal power, 
connected with sensation and voluntary motion alone, but they 
are all actively employed in the immediate and indispensable 
functions of life itself. Through every successive part of the 
spinal cord, although invisible to the eye — although “ the nar- 
row line of white matter” can be seen no longer — although it 
has given way to an apparent depression, yet the same presiding 
power has existence, the same functions of organic life are 
carrying on, and the spinal cord is discharging a far more 
important office than we have always been accustomed to attri- 
bute to it. 
The nervous Power which governs the lower Intestines. — The 
power of the medulla oblongata and the vagal nerve have ceased 
so far as the involuntary motions connected with digestion are 
concerned. I have divided — or rather Brachet has done so, and 
I had rather he than you or I — I do not think that we should 
feel quite comfortable after having sacrificed nearly 500 lives even 
in the pursuit of experiments like these — he has divided the 
spinal cord towards the inferior part of the dorsal region, and 
the duodenum and jejunum continue to perform their functions, 
but the ileum and lower intestines cease to act. The ileum, the 
caecum, the colon, and rectum, come under the influence of the 
spinal cord. It would be a point of some physiological curiosity 
to determine the precise point at which the influence of the 
vagal nerve ceases, and that of the spinal nerves commence. 
The muscular coat of these intestines receives from the spinal cord 
the influence which stimulates it to action, and is dependent 
on the spinal cord, and not on the par-vagum, for its contractile 
power. 
The Portion of Intestines affected by different Portions of the 
Spinal Cord. — Brachet pursues his experiment. He attempts 
to discover what particular portions of the spinal cord influence 
the different divisions of the large intestines. He makes his 
division between the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, and he 
produces paralysis of the extremities, as anatomical facts would 
lead us to conclude that he must do : he produces also paralysis 
of the rectum, and the stercoral matters accumulate in that in- 
testine. It is a small dog that he has operated upon — the animal 
eats as usual, but he evacuates nothing, and the rectum is 
completely distended by faecal matter. He repeats the operation 
on a cat. It eats and drinks as before, but four days pass, and 
no faecal matter is discharged: a large quantity is then eva- 
cuated, and more on the seventh day. The poor animal is 
then destroyed, and the rectum is found distended with excre- 
ment almost to bursting. Nothing, therefore, could be plainer 
