Vital motion as a mode of physical motion.

  • Radcliffe, Charles Bland, 1822-1889.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vital motion as a mode of physical motion. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    was black: instead of being arterial, that is to say, it was venoics. The state during the convulsion was evi- dently that of suffocation; and, for this reason, black, unaerated blood had found its way into the arteries, and was being driven through them at the time. The case was intelligible enough as regards the suffocation, for in this state the simple fact is, that black blood does for a time penetrate into and pass along the arteries; but it was not intelligible as regards convulsion, if convulsion were, as it is assumed to be, a sign of exalted vital action. I could connect such exaltation with increased supply of red blood to certain nerve-centres, but not with the utterly contrary state of things involved in the actual circulation of black blood ; and, do what I would, I could see no other conclusion than that which had been already forced upon me by the history of the poisoned rabbit, namely this, that the convulsion pointed to a state of things which had to do with death rather than with life,—that, in short, this state of muscu- lar contraction was due, not to the black blood having acted as a stimulus, but to the withdrawal of an in- hibitory influence which had served to keep up the state of muscular relaxation as long as certain nerve- centres were duly supplied with red blood. And so likewise with the second of the two facts to which I have alluded. I had the good fortune to be present on one occasion when Matteucci was watching the action of strychnia upon the common electric ray of the Mediterranean. I saw very plainly that this action was marked by involuntary electric shocks as well as by involuntary spasms, and I was much struck by