Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1873-07-03
A NEW SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
Experiments Upon the Brains OF Ami.
mails Discovery of an Improved
Treatment Of Diseases OF the Brain.


Lengthy particulars are given i'm the
Dundee Adcerttser of the important
discoveries as regards the brains OF
animals, recently made by DIR. Terrier,
the holder of the chair of forensic
medicine in Kings College, London.
"About a month ago DR.. Terrier, at
the invitation of DIR. Chricton Brown,
went to Wakefield and was amply sup
piled with cats, dogs, and other ami
NAL for his experiments. The ami
mails to be experimental on is first put
under the influence of chloroform.
The next thing is to clear away the
skull and expose the brain. This, il
will be understood, is difficult oper-
alton, but is done, and the animal may
live from three hours TO four days. All
this has been done often enough be-
fore, but the difficulty was to get some
mode of rousing parts of the brain in
to activity without iniuring the parts.
Here Farady comes in. Such is the
way Of scientific discoveries--cvery
step leads to the next. Without Simp-
son and chloroform the operation
could not have been successfully per-
formed. Without Faraday the opera
ton might have been performed q
thousand times without leading to any
result. The process employed by DR..
Farrier is known as faradising. After
uncovering the brain he applies the
point of an elecetode to the convolut-
us of the brain. Its effects is to excite
the functional activity OF that part, and
thereby to show what its real work is.
One of the first experiments disclosed
the part that is employed in wagging
the tail. Soon after the centers en-
ployed in supplying the limbs, the
mouth, head, etc., were discovered.
Nothing could surpass the interest of
these experiments. On the table be-
fore you is the dog with his skull re-
moved. All seems, but for the breath
ing and movement of the brain, an in
ert mass of dead matter. The doctor
applies the electrode, and presently
the tail begins to wag; all else is mo-
ticnless. Another touch and its fore
paw is stretched out; another, and the
head is erected another, and its mouth
opens. Again the magic wand touches
the brain. and the animal seems con-
vulsed with fear and rage, and SO on
experiments go. Once the divining
rod had been discovered it is conpar-
atively easy for an expert vissicator to
use it. This discovery, so simple,
once it is known, will effect almost a
revolution in physiology.
Hitherto it has been looked ON as an
axiom that you cannot experiment
with the brain--that it is too near the
seat of life to be tempered with. Now
experiments have, been introduced in
to region where we had re-
conciled ourselves to the vague and
uncertain light of observation. There
can be no doubt that we shall soon
know the particular use of every con-
volution of the brain. Phrenology
from the empirical stage of observa-
ton will become science. One Of
the chief results attained by DIR. Fer
rier is the belief that each convolution
is separate organ, although OCCASION
ally several may be conjoined for COM
mon work. He also finds that the
great motion centers are collected In
the front part of the brain, a result
that shows the phren0logists were not
far out in that quarter. 1t has also
demonstrated that the nerves moving
the muscles of the jaw, are just above
the ear, where the phrenologists place
gustatiyeness. But other experiments
made sad havoc with the locality of
the "bumps." The most singular of
all the experiments is one proving that
the main uses, If not the sole use of
cercbellum is to supply the muscles Of
the eye. But the most important inn
mediate effects of DIR. Terriers dis
covery will be an improved treatment
of diseases of the brain. II has found
out why considerable portions OF the