A system of anatomy for the use of students of medicine / by Caspar Wistar.

  • Wistar, Caspar, 1761-1818.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of anatomy for the use of students of medicine / by Caspar Wistar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Emory University.

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    Humboldt and others on Lcgallois7 Paper. that in animals who.have Buffered decapitation, the at tion of the heart does not cease as an immediate conse- quence of the removal of the head; but its cessation is an indirect effect, induced by the suspension of respira- tion. That respiration is immediately affected by deca- pitation, and depends upon the influence of the brain transmitted through the eighth pair of nerves. That the action of the heart will continue a long time after deca- pitation, if inflation of the lungs, or artificial respiration, be performed; but, on the contrary, if the spinal mar- row be destroyed, the action of the heart ceases irreco- verably. The inference from these experiments seems very con- clusive, that the Spinal Marrow, and not the brain, is the source of the motions of the heart. It appears also by some of the experiments, that the power of motion in the trunk of the body is derived from the spinal marrow ; and that when this organ is partially destroj'cd, the parts which receive nerves from the de- stroyed portion soon cease to live. By particular ma- nagement of the spinal marrow, one part of the body can be preserved alive for some time after the other parts are dead. These experiments of Dr. Legallois commenced in 1806 or 1807, and were communicated to the Imperial Insti tute of France in 1811. The committee of that body (o whom they were referred, viz. Messrs. Humboldt, Halle and Percy, reported that the experiments had been re- peated before them, at three different meetings of several hours each ; and that to allow themselves sufficient time for reflection, they suffered an interval of a week to take- place between the meetings. The committee believe these experiments to have proved, 1st. That the'principle upon which all the movements of inspiration depend, has its seat about that part of the medulla oblongata from which the nerves of the eighth pair arise. 2d. That the principle which animates each part of the trunk of the body is seated in that portion of the spinal marrow from which the nerves of the part arise. 3d. That the source of the life and strength of the heart is also in the spinal marrow; not in any distinct portion, but in the whole of it.