A new exposition of the function of the nerves. Part 1 / by James William Earle.

Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new exposition of the function of the nerves. Part 1 / by James William Earle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    20/204 (page 12)
    upon the supposition of his having fully esta- blished these points, that the -disproving of them will materially affect the greater number of his positions, and m the event of its being shewn that points so essential are not esta- blished, of course the arguments which rest upon them must fall. These arguments are so interwoven with the different parts of Dr. Philip's work, that if they are not valid the whole becomes immediately a mass of confusion in which it is extremely difficult to separate truth from error. Dr. Philip has also fallen into a great mis- take in confounding the nervous power with volition. As this is of importance in the effect it has upon his general opinions of the cause of the action of voluntary muscles, it is especially necessary that so great an error should be distinctly pointed out. He finds that salt when applied to these muscles excites con- tractions in them, whether their nerves are divided or entire. Any stimulant has the same eftect; contractions are excited upon its appli- cation, and cease upon its removal. This Dr. Philip considers to be sufficient ground for concluding, that the nervous power excites the action of voluntary muscles. Any simple per- son might have supposed the salt was the stimulant; but no, Dr. Philip, says it was the