268 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
attachments — of the peritoneum to the dorsal, and lumbar, and 
sacral portions of the spine, you can readily conceive that there 
will be no difficulty in conveying the spinal nervous influence to 
every part of them. 
The Bladder is another viscus under the mingled influence of 
the voluntary and involuntary, the animal and organic systems, 
and its power of muscular contraction depends on nerves derived 
from the spinal cord. The division of the cord at its lumbar 
portion, by means of which the rectum of the dog and cat were 
paralyzed, likewise deprived the bladder of the power of con- 
tracting on its contents. The dog not only discharged no faecal 
matter, but the passage of the urine was stopped, and after 
death the bladder was found enormously distended : it was the 
same with the cat. It takes place in the palsy of the hinder 
extremities in a dog. If he dies in consequence of the disease, 
the immediate cause of death is over-distention or rupture of the 
bladder. 
The Uterus . — The power of conception is influenced by or 
depends upon, in a very considerable degree, the integrity of the 
spinal nervous system. In the numerous paralytic canine pa- 
tients that have come under my observation, I have never ob- 
served the slightest venereal appetite, and I have often instituted 
very close inquiries ; but I have observed, again and again, that 
in the bitch the period of oestrum has quickly followed the dis- 
appearance of the palsy, and the dog has been more than usually 
salacious, when he regained power over his lumbar muscles. I 
by no means, however, consider this as an infallible rule. 
Gestation , or the growth of the foetus, is, as you may readily 
suppose, under the influence of another system, the ganglionic. 
The operations of secretion and nutrition are here concerned, 
and not those of organic sensation and motion. The spinal cord 
of a female rabbit was divided twenty-four hours after copula- 
tion. She lived twenty-three days, and on her death three well- 
formed foetus were found in the womb. The experiment was 
repeated on four guinea-pigs, and with the same result. 
Parturition . — This is a different affair. The time of utero- 
gestation having passed, the fibres of the uterus begin to con- 
tract with force — with interrupted but renewed efforts, until the 
foetus is expelled. I relate the cruel experiments of Bracket. 
The labour pains were commencing in a guinea-pig : he divided 
the spinal marrow. The labour pains were not entirely sus- 
pended, but they continued at intervals, and feebly, during 
three days, when the animal died without having produced her 
young. He reasoned with himself, if the cerebro-spinal system 
is the cause of these uterine efforts, they ought to cease when 
