Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-08-27
A New Scientific Discovery.

LENGTHY particulars are given in the
Dundee (Scotland) Adverttser, of ,impor-
tant 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 month
ago DR.. Terrier, at the invitation of DR..
Crichton Brown, went to Wakefield, and
was amply provided with cats, dogs, and
other animals for his experiments. The
animal to be experimental on is first put
under chloroform The next thing is to
clear away the skull and expose the brain.
This. it will be understood, is difficult
operation 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 into
activity without injuring the parts. Here
Faraday comes in. Such is the way of
scientific discoveries-eve step leads to
the next Without Simpson and chloro-
form the operation could not have been
usefully attempted. Without Faraday
the operation might have been per
formed thousand times without lead
ing to any result. The process employed
by DR.. Terrier is known as faradising
After uncovering the brain he applies the
point Of an electrode to the convolutus of
the brain. Its effect is to excite the func-
tional 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 engaged in supplying the
limbs, the mouth, head. etc.. were dis
covered. Nothing could surpass the in
terest of these experiments. On the table
before you is the dog with it's skull re-
moved. All seems, but for the breathing
and movement of the brain, an inert mass
of dead matter. The doctor applies the
electrode, and presently the tail begins to
wag; all else is motionless. Another
touch, and its forepaw is stretched out !;
another, and its head is erected; another,
and its mouth opens. Again, the magic
wand touches the brain, and the animal
seems convulsed with fear and rage, and
SO on experiments go. Once the divining g
rod has been discovered it is compare
lively easy for an expert vissicator to use
it. This discovery, SO simple once it is
known, will effect almost 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 expert
ment has been introduced into a region
where we had recOnciled ourselves to the
vague and uncertain light of observation.
There can be no doubt that we shall soon
know the particular use Of every convolu-
ton of the brain Phrenology from the
stage of empirical observation will be-
come a science. One of the chief results
attained by Dr. Ferrier is the belief that
each convOlution is separate orean, al
| though occasionally several may be con-
joined for common work. He also finds
that the great motion centers are collected
in the front part Of the brain, result
that shows the phrenologists were not far
out in that quarter. It also has demon
strated that the nerves moving the mus
cles of the jaws are 3ust above the ear,
where the phrenologists place gustative-
ness. But other experiments made sad
havoc with the locality of many of the
dumps" The most singular of all the
the main uses, if not the sole use of cere-
bellum is to supply the muscles of the
eye. But the most important immediate
effect of DR.. Terriers discovery will be
all improved treatment of diseases of the
brain 1t has found out why consider
able portions of the brain may be dis
eased without interfering with sanity, and
why other slight LESSONS produce epilepsy.
1t has succeeded in artificially producing
epilepsy in dog This is most won
derful part of the discovery, and proves
the truth of the conjecture of Dr. Hew-
lings Jackson, that epilepsy arises from a
lesion between two convolutions of the
brain Dr. Ferrier has also found out the
origin Of chorea or St. Vitus' dance, and
has been able to make his animals show
all the symptoms of the disease. artif-
cially.