Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1842-12-01
II 7 S ON d u 4 q 20
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

Monsieur flourenS, Z Savaut cI high dis
tincton, has just published a second edition,
dedicated TO the Academy, of his previous
Experimental Researches OH the properties
and functions of the Nervous System, in YER
tebrated Animals" OF this important work,
we find an abstract in the late French journals :;
and it seems to us worthy of being presented
Ito our readers in translation
"The present is (says the notice. work to
a large degree new; in which the author has,
it is tue. embodied his former enquiries, that
gained him the elevated rank in Sciences
which he occupies but those facts of which
the most part have received the sanction of
time and OF experiment have all been reviewed
by him with the precision, which talent and
sagacity, ripened by reflection, would give
Such qualities Mons. +. had shown, from the
outset, by his analysis Of the difficult problems
which he undertook 20 solve"
"Such problems require not only the high
est anatomical skill, and hand practised to
the most delicate operations, but mind the
most judicious and philosophical, to follow
the relations Of cause and effect, and never to
lose the thread proper to guide the physiolo-
gist through the labyrinth of the complicated
phenomena, depending on the play of an organ
i'll which sensations terminate-which PER-
cEIvEs and withstand from which, at the
same time, the voluntary movements spring.
What ingenious devices in experiment must one
not contrve, to trace the separate effects, and
what self-command, i'll order not to be drawn
into the errors ola system-maker, or taste
FOR the wonderful 10
| "ln an Introduction highly perspicuous,
Mons. F. has explained the plan and the steps
by which he has gone forward, the end which
he proposed to himself and the results which
he has obtained He here displays the same
strcness of logic which marks his preceding
labours, and i'll particular those in which are
so well discussed the doctrines and the aberra-
tons of Phrenoogy."
| "fhe nervous system is divided Gas is
fknown) into three principal parts-the N erves,
| the Spinal Marrow, and the Brain. The struc-
ture of the two latter is visby distinct: but
are their functions as separator Many ply
siologistS have thought so; b!;t'none has de-
monstrated 1T, byprecise experiments.
"Ihe difficult point was to arrive at prcci-
sion iii these subtle experiments. Hitherto,
the parts had not been insulated from each o.
Their, in the experiments there had been none
but confused ones; and the phenomena had
therefore been complex, when they should
have been simple"
'Mons. f. has been as careful IS possible to
exclude all but the parts TO which his expert
ment was directed, and to omit, in his examin-
atoms, no essential part of the Cerebral mat
! ter.o
"lle thus lays down tolimself the question:
to be determined: Does tile facility which
,cittS and pcrceiues reside in the same part:
as that which has the property of SENSATION
and this last in the same parts as the property
of giving motion? To THINK, to FEEL, to
MOVE, are they one or three properties ar,
they distinct, the one from the organs Of TIT
other?
'These great questions, debated Gor man,
centuries, were yet to be solved"
"The experiments Of the learned Secretar,
of the Academy prove, as distinctly as posi-
bic, that there are, in the Nervous System
three properties essentially diGerent---on
. which PgRCEIvEs and WILLS a second whic
FEELS; ard third which MOVES: that thcs
three properties differ in their seat, as well
in their effects and that precise limit sepal
ates the organs of one from those of all othe
"Thc nerves Of the Spinal Marrow, the M
dulLo oblongatd, and the bjumal and quadr
jumal tubercles alone ercite immediate Alu.
:, culsr Contraction: the lobes Of the brain tcj
J. it, but do not excite il, and further, in II
spinal marrow itself and in the nerves, u
V parts which eTcite motion are no. those while
e FEEL.
d "Finay, there resides in the Cercbelum
property Of which no idea had yet been form
ed in physiology Which gives RgGULAl
Try TO molion.''
'ln other respects, Gael! part Of tho nervot