318 ME. J. L. CLAEKE ON THE INTIMATE STEUCTUEE OE THE BEAIN. 
The disease is not common, and little is known of its morbid anatomy. In one case 
only, Trousseau examined with the greatest care, the brain, the cord, and the roots of 
the nerves, but found nothing unusual ; nevertheless, something certainly was to be found, 
and lesions, sufficient to produce the symptoms, might very easily exist in the nuclei 
at the floor of the fourth ventricle without detection, or in the roots of the nerves arising 
from them. It is probable, however, that in none of these cases the lesion is limited 
to the medulla. There is sometimes weakness of one side of the body or of one arm ; 
and sometimes, towards the end, the limbs become flexed on each other, and the patient 
is drawn up in a heap *. 
(84) Whether or not the olivary bodies be subservient to the operations of speech and 
deglutition, it is quite certain that these are not their only functions. We have seen 
that in all the Mammalia, except the mute Porpoise, they are very much smaller than 
in the Monkey, which is wholly unable to articulate, and in which the act of deglutition 
has nothing peculiar. But even if it should be imagined by some that the “ chat- 
tering” of the Monkey is a kind of speech, the Orang Outang and Chimpanzee are not 
more gifted in this respect than the inferior tribes, and yet their olivary bodies are much 
more highly developed, as I have already shown. Now, except their superior intelli- 
gence, the only endowments that distinguish the Ape-tribe from all other Mammalia, 
are their singular faculty of imitation and gesticulation, and their power of expressing 
a variety of emotions, of which they are very susceptible ; and in these respects the 
Orang Outang is by far the most highly endowed. Le Comte, in his ‘ History of China,’ 
says of one of these animals which he saw in the Straits of Molucca, that its actions so 
strongly resembled those of Man, and its passions were so expressive and lively, that 
a dumb person could scarcely make himself better understood. It signified its joy and 
anger by stamping with its foot on the ground ; it could dance, and would sometimes cry 
like a child. These animals are also distinguished for their surprising agility and mus- 
cular power. Now since the olivary bodies are larger in the Ape-tribe than in any other 
animals, and largest of all in the Orang Outang, which is the most highly endowed with 
the power of expressing its emotions and desires, it appears to be extremely probable that 
this power is dependent on the co-ordinating functions of the olivary bodies. Nor are 
these functions limited to the medulla oblongata and the parts supplied by its nerves. 
They extend to the spinal cord, and to the sympathetic influencing the glandular secre- 
tions and the diameter of the capillary vessels, through the vaso-motor nerves. 
(85) Anatomists and physiologists are too much in the habit of regarding the olivary 
bodies as if they were connected only with the medulla oblongata and some other parts 
* Since tlie above was written Ihave read Trousseau's account of the post-mortem examination of a case in 
which the roots of the vagus were atrophied; the roots of the right hypoglossal were also atrophied to mere 
filaments ; the roots of the spinal- accessory were on both sides small, and of a greyish colour. In the neuri- 
lemma there was a fatty granular substance. The anterior spinal roots were atrophied, especially near the 
roots of the spinal-accessory. Many other anterior spinal roots were diminished in size. The grey substance 
of the cord was of deeper colour and harder than natural. I shall be very glad to examine the brain, medulla, 
and cord of patients who may die of this disease. 
