Connecticut western news., 1874-05-01
Stronger When Dead Than Alive.


 It is we'll known, says Dr. Brown
 Sequard, that if a nerve has been di vlded, after four days it loses its power The muscles, however, remain perfectly active, and we can produce contraction Tn them. Unfortunately, here, also there is an element of nerve tissue which is inside of the nerve sheath, and It IS not known whether it has lost its power or not. In the case of two de- capltated men, l made an experiment of cutting off the arms. I found, after thirteen and half hours in one case and fourteen hours in the other case, that all signs of life in the limbs had disappeared. Up to that time, either galVanlsm or shock produced by a blow with my arm or a paper-cutter, caused the muscles to respond to the irritation. I then injected the blood of a man into one of those arms, and the blood of dog into another. In both cases local life was restored in those arms. The muscles became irritable again, and the strength of contraction was extremely powerful. Indeed, in the arm in which the blood of the man had been Injected, the power was inn mense. 1t was greater certainly than during life. There was therefore re- turn of muscular 1rritability after it had disappeared, and nervous excitability had not come. The nerves remained quite dead. Therefore it seemed quite clear that the muscular irritability de- pended upon nutrition by blood and the oxygen in 1t. The blood injected was richly charged with oxygen, and that was the reason why the muscular Irritation became so great. There was more oxygen than usual. As the nerves had not regained any power at all. it was not through any influence of the nerves on tho muscles that the part had re-acquired life. There also we find, however, that same objection, that we do not know whether the elements of the nervous tissue which are inside of the sheath of muscles had lost their power or not.
 But there are other facts more deci- s1ve. Professor Simpson, of Edin- burgh, examined the power of contrac- tion in the umbilical cord-the cord which unites the foetus to its mother. In that cord the contraction by galvan- ism was made with great intensity. Some physiologists have thought that there are no nervous centers there. If o.AOeO e'AO 9AJ3 0Aoy hE0 very Snd1I. Tn the iris of an eye have found sin gular fact. Long ago had discovered that light can affect the iris of the eye, even when it has been removed from the body for sixteen days and kept at temperature of about 36 to 40 degrees Fah. But found that although the eye was in almost complete putrefac- tion, the light still acted as an irritant of muscular fbers. There it was i'm possible to admit that there was ner- vous action. The muscular fbers them selves were considerably altered, still they acted. s
 But there is a fact which is more de- cisive to show that muscular irritab1lity is independent of the nervous system for it's existence. It is that if we strike 9 muscle that is dying away, we pro- duce ridge at the place we strike. All | the fbers in the muscle contract at that | place. And as it is impossible to admit that in those cases there has been 8 nervous action in every elementary fiber, because the parts I spoke of, which are inside of the sheath, are gen erally in the middle of the length of the fiber, and any part of the muscle may react in that way, it is, therefore, i'm possible to admit that there is any nervous action in those cases. There fore, they show that muscles are inde- pendent of nerves for their action.