The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1873-04-10

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any other tissue, and that all Physiolo-
gists agreed upon this point. The fol
lowing experiment by Professor Muller,
one of the most able Surgeons and
learned Psychologists in the world, con-
firms my statement, and proves that
those Physicians who testified otherwise,
was ignorant of their profession, or will
fully stated what they knew to be false.
VIII you please publish the statement
for the benefit Of your many readers.
1T MoNAHAN
REMARKABLE TRANsFUsIoN-A DEAD MAN s
BRAIN TRANSFERRED TO ALIyING SUBJECT.
New York Worlds Paris letter.
Hardly has the excitement and fierce
inc redulity of the Paris savans respect
ing the experiments of Professor Muller,
of Weissnicht, or revivifcation had time
to cool before another series of expert
ments by the same psychologist, and no
less respectfully authenticated startles
the world of science. 1t is necessary to
premise that the views of physiologists
respecting the mode of activity of the
brain have recently undergone great
modification, and the correctness of the
modern ideas is fully supported by the
experiments to which we refer 1t was
formerly imag agined. and is still largely
taught, that the activity of the brain de
pended upon the forces liberated by GER
tain cells in the gray matter of that or
gan, which were supposed to be the seat
of very active changes demanding an
abundant supply of blood. Nerve force
was supposed to be set at liberty in these
az 1a1 rUif n
the production of heat. But these views
have not been able to endure the close
scrutiny to which the brain has recently
been subjected. The microscope has
shown that these cells, these supposed
nerve-force producers, are only means
of interchange of nervous filaments, a
provision for the distribution of tele-
graph wires, as it were, not active cen
ters, not batteries liberating vital force
of any kind. 1t has been proved that in
death from starvation, when the stomach
has been unable to receive, retain or di-
gest food, while all the rest of the body
loses weight, such is not the case with
the brain substance proper. In cases of
sudden death the muscles have been
found producing heat long after life is
extinct, while in the brain no heat is lib
Grated after death, although the brain
may be gorged with blood. The infer
ence drawn from these facts, as we'll as
from the integrity of the brain in all
manner of disease, is that this organ is
one Of sluggish nutritive changes, an in
ert instrument, played upon by forces
which have their origin elsewhere than
in the brain matter Furthermore, nerves
and brain-substance, when divided, re-
unite as readily as tendon or. skin, or
mucous membranes, and the nervous
phenomena interrupted by the wound or
section are re-established when the wound
has healed. All Psychologists agree on
this point. And as skin or periosteum,
or mucous membrane can be transplant
ed, as surgeons we'll know and constantly
demonstrate in practice, can not nervous
tissue be subjected to the same process
SO reasoned our eXperimenter, and these
preliminaries will show that Professor
Mullers experiments were legitimated by
strict scientific reasoning and research
Professor Muller, after having transplant
ed or transferred the hemIspheres of the
brain from one animal to another of the
same species in the higher animals (man-
mails dogs, cats, etc, andEhaving grated
the brain so as to produce the manifesto
tions of celebral activity, secured at
length the opportunity of performing the
same experiment in man, and with the
results which it is the object of this let
ter to detail. / give the facts as recorded
in The Gazette He5domadatrc, taken from
-Virchoa0's ArchiUeS, q medical journal pub
lished at Berlin.
1t was at Leipzig that the experiment
was performed. \ soldier who had killed
the Colonel of his regiment in cold blood.
and whom the severity of Prussian mill
tary discipline would have caused to die
hundred deaths, had it been possible,
was deliberately handed over to the sur
geons, by sentence of court-martial, and
was confined III q strong room in the mil
itarv hospital, entirely in the dark as to
the fate which awaited him. H. was
kept there ready for an emergency,
which did not fail to occur. keeper Of
a beer-cellar in Leipzig, man resembling
in many respects the condemned soldier,
and who had been seized with acute in
fammation of the heart, or rather of its
investing membrane, was brought to the
hospital to die of that incurable and
promptly fatal malady. No sooner had
the anticipated death taken place than
the dead saloon-keeper was placed on
table by the side of another operating
table, on which was the chIorolormed but
living body of the soldier. Two surgeons,
with assistants, proceeded alike in both
cases, to divide the scalp over the sum
nit of the skull from ear to ear, turn
back the divisions and remove the skull
cap by incisions passing around the skull
like o crown. In the soldier, whose car
otid arteries had been prepared for com
preston, these vessels were clamped, so
as to prevent hemorrhage, and but few
drops of blood were lost during the en-
tire operation. In each the dura mater
was incised, and the hemispheres of the
brain were removed by an incision with
q sharp, thin-bladed knife passing above
the cerebellum, or Il narrow portion of
about two inches in diameter called the
orura cerebri.
The brain Of the saloon-keeper, which
was sound, the heart disease having left
it intact, he having been sensible to the
! last, was transferred to the skull of the
soldier, by an ingenious con trivance, fully
detailed in the Gazette, the continuity of
! the arterial and venous tubes was estab.
! lished. The greatest care was taken in
securing the natural adaptation of the
parts to fraction of line, and the skull,
having been replaced simply, was held
down and in position by the scalp, which
was drawn over, and its edges confined
by strips Of adhesive plaster, and over
all was placed bandage. 1t was not un-
til several days had passed that the pres
sure upon the carotid arteries was entire
ly relaxed, although before the skull was
replaced the flow of blood in the vessels
of the brain was proved to be restored.
Hhe chief fear was from the results of
inflammation and suppuration but for
tunately neither ensued, and the wound
elk parts healed kindly. There was from
the first no difficulty in feeding the pa
tient, nor was difficulty anticipated, for
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