Experimental researches applied to physiology and pathology / By e. Brown-Séquard.

  • Brown-Séquard, Charles-Edouard, 1817-1894.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experimental researches applied to physiology and pathology / By e. Brown-Séquard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    Chossat, Longet and others, about the influence of the spinal cord on the functions of organic life, are quite erroneous. I have found that birds are able to live for months after the destruction of the spinal cord, from the fifth costal vertebra to its termina- tion. This fact proves not only that the functions of organic life may continue to exist in such a case, but that they appear to be executed then as in healthy birds ; for, if the operation has been made on a young bird, it will afterwards grow very well. I have succeeded in keeping alive, from the 8th of April until the 4th of July, a young cat, about which I have already pub- lished a note in this journal.* The palsied parts in this animal have grown in length proportionately as much as the sound parts. The growth has been such in the palsied limbs that they have ac- quired more than double the length they had at the time of the operation. The functions of organic life appeared to exist without any apparent disturbance. The nutritive reparation was so powerful, that the pieces of the vertebral column which had been cut off have been reproduced. This fact is important, because it shows that the reproduction of bone is possible in a palsied part. The temperature of that cat was at the ordinary degree, (105° Fahr., in the rectum.) The secretion of the hair and nails took place as in healthy cats. I had previously seen on birds that their temperature remained normal after the destruction of a great part of the spinal cord. Besides, I have found in these birds that the secretion of quills and nails continued to take place. As to the influence of the medulla oblongata on the functions of organic life, my experiments on cold-blooded vertebrata have proved to me, that these functions (except, of course, pulmonary respiration,) may continue to exist without any appearance of disturbance. 5. After the complete transverse section of the spinal cord in mammals or birds, I have found that the ulcerations which take place around the genital organs do not result directly from the ab- sence of nervous action. One of the causes of these ulcerations is continued pressure, and another cause is the continual pre- sence of altered urine and faeces. * See Med. Exam., No. v. May, 1852, p. 321.