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.

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    IT erroneous. It has been supposed impossible to- reconcile this doctrine with the numerous in- stances of these monstrous productions, which have from time to time been placed on record. It only, however, requires a little more atten- tion, than has yet been paid to the circum- stances attending them, to shew that instead of contradicting they actually confirm this doc- trine. In order to investigate this subject properly,, the first question asked should be, what is the cause of the motion of the first punctum sa- liens in an embryo? The motion of the red globules of the blood is certainly an effect of some cause or other, for we cannot imagine them capable of moving by any inherent pro-» perty. Is the nervous influence of the mother the cause? Of this we cannot be sure, but as there are, as yet, neither nerves nor brain in the embryo, or indeed any thing belonging to the embryo itself which can be the cause of the motion, the cause must be external to the embryo, and if the nervous influence of the mother be not that cause, it is impossible to know to what it can be attributed. A cause however must nevertheless exist, which, as it had the power of originating the motion of the first punctum saliens, so also, as ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute, must it have the power c