National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-01-16
Grewsome But Useful Experiments.

llluItlOTu NOuIullsI
In the hundred years since Galvani made
his little experiment with frog and caused
its dead muscles to contract by the applica-
tion Of electricity, there have been many
attempts to make electricity act the part of
the spark of life, whatever that may Ne.
They have varied from the first uninstruCted
efforts to make a dead body simulate the
movements Of life to the more recent studies
in exciting certain portions OF the brain aud
tracing the exact effect on muscles already
known to depend more or less for the move
ment on those particular parts Of the brain.
Some especially Of the earlier ones, were
horrible and CHASTITY and did not yield sci
entifc results Of any great value. Those
that came after were made with the help of
such advanced knowledge as limited the in
quiry and made II more fruitful In nearly
the same ratio. Some of them were inno-
cent, but some were still grewsome. Dead
faces were made to writhc, arms twitched,
hands clenched, eyes rolled in their sockets.
But with all this there was an actual increase
Of knowledge In field that offers pos
sibilities enough TO stimulate any student
who looks In this way for the exact part that
is played by the material brain in the pro.
cesscs Of life, including the function of
thought.
Now, in all these experiments, one Diff
Guilty has been the short time after death
that was available for the tests. In few
minutes the nerves and muscles lost the
power of responding 10 an excitant. The
last attempt to meet this difficulty Is de-
scribed In the RcrUe ScieRtif9Uc for Nov.
2S, and a summary Of it is given In Science
The first experiment was made with the
head Of a criminal who had been decapita-
ted. To prolong the period OF sensbility
II was arranged that the carotid artery Of a
dog should be united to one of the carotids
in the severed human bead. The other car
otid was at the same time injected with de-
flbrinatcd blood at suitable temperature.
Owing to unexpected delays it was seven
teen minutes after death before the con-
nections were made. Through an opening
in the skull pair of electrodes were
brought to the frontal parietal region On the
left side, this being more than twenty min
utes after the decaptation. Then the
TRANSMISSION Of blood began. The face as
sumed q natural color, there was II regular
and marked contraction Of the muscles on
the opposite side of the face,n and IA
movement OF TIC lower jaw which
caused u strong chattering OF the
teeth This movement could be rS'scl
up to fofty-nine minutes after death. Dur
ing the time CT successful stimulation the
pupil of the eye contracted or dilated rs a
light was moved toward II or away from It,
In later experiment with another subject
there was partial failure said to be due to
the fact that the man had furiously resisted
when the time for his execution came, and
that "resultant neuro-muscular eXcitabillty
prevented the orderly action Of the electrical
stimulation In this instance, however,
stimulation of the cephalic end of the me-
dulla produced movements of the tongue.
1t is chiefly as tests Of hypothesis or APP
parent results of other inquiry that such
experiments have value, and their useful
ness in this way is likely to prove very
considerable