OF THE CEHTHAL MOTOR INNERVATION OF THE LARYNX. 
189 
b. Historical Retrospect. 
Although various authors have observed the changes in thoracic respiration following 
excitation of the central nervous system, hut few have studied the relationship of the 
latter to the larynx, either so far as respiration or as pbonation is concerned. 
As this relationship is the immediate subject of this paper, we shall confine ourselves 
in this retrospect to a brief resume of the results of those authors who have directly 
investigated, either experimentally or clinically, the question here at issue. 
On the experimented side undoubtedly Ferrier* * * § was the first worker in the field 
of excitation. In the first edition of his well-known work he describes an instance in 
which excitation of a certain cortical area in the Dog elicited barking, and observes 
that similar observations had been made by him repeatedly. 
Shortly afterwards Duret,! of Paris, referred to the same subject in connection with 
his cortical ablation and compression experiments, and reported similar results. 
Although subsequent experimentation has shown that both these observers did not 
accurately localise the focus of the re})resentation of phonation in the cortex, to them, 
undoubtedly, belongs the priority of the idea of a special representation of this function 
in the cortex. 
Seven years after Perrier’s reference to the question the subject was, at the 
suggestion of H. Munk, specially studied by H. Krause,^ who was the first to 
localise accurately the phonatory area in the cortex of the Dog’s brain. He made 
six excitation-experiments on Dogs, from which he localised the movement of closure 
of the glottis (alw-ays bilateral adduction) to be represented in the isthmus (“ Stiel”) 
of the prsefrontal (praecrucial) gyrus. To his ablation and degeneration experiments 
we .shall make reference in a future communication. 
In his great work on the functions of the brain, Francois Franck^ states that 
excitation of the “zone motrice” of the cortex produces changes in the thoracic 
respiratory movements according to the duration and intensity of the excitation. 
These changes are acceleration, slowing, and variations of amplitude. He does not 
consider that respiratory centres can he considered to exist in the cortex cerebri, or 
that there is any differential representation of the larynx or other parts of the 
respiratory apparatus. 
In the epileptic convulsion evoked by cortical excitation he observed what we have 
confirmed and extended, viz., that in the tonic stage the glottis is shut, whereas in 
* ‘ Functions of the Brain.’ 
t ‘ Traumatismes cerebraux,’ 1878, p. 142. 
t “ Ueber die Beziehungen der Grossliirnrinde zu Keblkopf und Rachen,” ‘ Archiv fiir Aiiatomie und 
Pbysiologie, Physiol. Abth.,’ 1884. This was preceded by a note under the same title, in the ‘ Sitzungs- 
berichte der Kgl. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin,’ November, 1883. 
§ Francois Franck, ‘ Lemons sur les Fonctions Motrices du Cet-Teau,’ Paris. 1887 pp. 146-8. 
