6 
was chilled, the phenomena of partial paralysis and forward falling were 
most conspicuous. 
Spine below Cervical Region. —Here the phenomena were just such as 
follow deep freezing of the dorsal or lumbar spine; that is to say, at first 
little or no result, but finally singular feebleness of movement, with irregu¬ 
lar locomotion, stamping of the feet, and forward falls, but no retrogression 
in any case. 
The general law observed in these various cases of freezing of different ' 
parts of the surface is capable of very simple statement. If we make 
allowance for slight discrepancies, and consider the difficulty of exact! 
localizing the cold, we shall observe that in pigeons the chilling of any 
region of skin occasions just such symptoms as follow the application of 
deep cold to the spinal region which lies below it. To this there is the 
exception of the lateral motions, which I have never caused by chilling 
the spine, but which perhaps I might produce, could we limit the cold to 
the sides of the bare spine. 
In observing these wonderful instances of reflex spasms, and in noticing 
the alternate or consequent stupors, I have been led to suspect that the 
whole group of symptoms might be in their nature epileptiform. In fact, 
they strikingly recalled to me cases of epilepsy in which it was always 
possible, during a series of fits, to determine instantly a fresh attack by 
pinching certain regions of the skin, or, as Brown-Sequard states, by gal¬ 
vanizing portions of the integument. Upon reflection, I remembered that 
in quadrupeds the best type of epilepsy we can artificially induce is to be 
occasioned by cutting off the supply of blood to the brain. By this means 
I hoped in the pigeon to produce, for study, the form of epilepsy to which 
the bird is liable, and so to be able to compare it with the most violent of 
the convulsive motions caused by cold. 
Expt .—I tied successively the vessels of the neck in a pigeon until I brought 
on sudden and violent convulsions. These consisted first in wild, irregular move¬ 
ments, and finally in backward somersaults, which ceased when I relaxed the 
ligatures, and began again when I tightened them anew. 
By repeated experiments of this nature I satisfied myself that the tendency 
of the pigeon during epilepsy from anaemia is towards violent backward 
motion, so that, as far as this may be looked upon as evidence, there is at 
once made out a conspicuous resemblance between the spasms from cold 
and those just described. 
As I have utterly failed to evolve like phenomena in quadrupeds, I am 
not prepared to dwell upon some of the tempting analogies between the 
facts above described and those with which human pathology furnishes us. 
The most remarkable would be the production of paraplegia or of tetanus 
in man by the application of cold to the surface. Both here and in the bird 
it is probable that a congestion of the spinal centres has to do with the 
result, but in the bird there are always, with the feebleness, larger evidences 
