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VII. Experiments to ascertain the injiuence of the spinal marrow 
on the action of the heart in fishes. By Mr. William Clift. 
Communicated hy Sir Everard Home, Bart , V. P. R. S. 
Read February 1 6, 1815. 
A s the experiments of M. Gallois, which led him to con- 
clude, that the action of the heart is dependent upon the spinal 
marrow, were principally made upon quadrupeds, in which 
death is so readily produced, when the vital organs are injured, 
or any one of them destroyed ; I thought by repeating those 
experiments upon fishes, which are much more tenacious of 
life, and whose mode of respiration is of a more simple nature, 
the truth or fallacy of his conclusions might be ascertained. 
I was led to select the carp for this purpose, having observed 
that a carp after the head was cut off, and the heart had been 
removed for above four hours, and the fish was considered to 
have been long dead, upon being put into hot water, leaped 
out of the vessel with a degree of vigour totally unexpected, 
being equal to the struggles of a living fish. 
I shall not take up the time of the Society, by a detail of all 
the experiments I made, but shall only select those which 
bear upon this particular subject. 
Exp. 1. Two carp of nearly equal size, had their hearts 
exposed, by opening into the pericardium. In one of them, 
the heart on exposure pulsated twenty times in a minute, but 
soon after, only twelve. The fish was put into river water, 
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