Experiments made with a view to ascertain the principle on which the action of the heart depends, and the relation which subsists between that organ and the nervous system / by A.P. Wilson Philip.

  • Philip, Alexander Philip Wilson, 1770-1847.
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments made with a view to ascertain the principle on which the action of the heart depends, and the relation which subsists between that organ and the nervous system / by A.P. Wilson Philip. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    nervous, so has the nervous, independent of the sensorial system. What is here said is finely illustrated by reviewing the various classes of animals. In the lowest class we find only the muscular system, which exists without either nervous sys- tem or sensorium. In the next class we find the muscular and nervous systems, which exist without sensorium. In the most perfect animals, we find the three vital powers combined, each having an existence not immediately depending on the others, but all so connected, that none can exist long without the others. The nature of this connection is obvious, when we consider that all are supported by the circulation, which depends for its immediate support on the muscular system, and cannot long exist without respiration, and that this depends not on the sensorium, but, as M. le Gallois has satisfactorily proved, on the nervous system, which system is under the immediate influence of the sensorium, directing, but not pro- ducing, its various movements ; and such is the power of the sensorium over the nervous system, that its affections may, through this system, at once destroy every function of life. Thus joy and other strong passions have killed more speedily than suffocation can, and therefore otherwise than through the destruction of respiration. Exp. 20. All that has been said of the vital power of the heart is strikingly confirmed by the following experiments. If the head and spine of a frog be removed, the heart continues to perform its function perfectly for many hours, nor does it seem at all immediately affected by their removal. But we find the effect very different when the most sudden and powerful agent is applied to them. If they are destroyed by being cut D 2