“ At twenty-five minutes past five in the evening,
(viz. six hours and sixteen minutes after decollation
and the destruction of its spinal marrow,) the auricle
of this frog’s heart, which was still filled with
blood, contracted twelve times in a minute; but
the heart itself lay without motion, was swelled and
very red : however, when pricked with a pin, it
performed two or three pulsations, and then
remained at rest, till roused by a new stimulus. At
thirty-five minutes past five, the heart seemed to
be quite dead, but the auricle continued its motion ;
nay, at half an hour past eight, near three hours
after the heart had been without motion, the auricle,
which was very near as much filled with blood
as when I first opened this frog, beat 11 or 12
times in the minute ; its pulsations, however, were
not now so regular as to time, as they had been
before.
“ Is it not probable, that the auricle of this frog’s
heart beat longer than usual, because it continued
to the last, to be filled with blood; whereas, generally,
the auricles of frog’s hearts, which are opened
after decollation and the destruction of their spinal
marrow, expel, after some time, the blood which
they contain, and acquire the appearance of a small
pellucid bladder filled with air?”1
The investigation of the influence of the brain
and spinal marrow seems to have been interrupted
from the period at which these authors wrote, until
that at which Legallois performed his experiments
—experiments amongst the most remarkable of
physiology.2 Speaking of the source of the
power of the heart, Legallois observes :
“ C’est ce principe formé dans le cerveau et la
moelle épinière qui, sous le nom de puissance
nerveuse et par l’intermédiaire des nerfs, anime
tout le reste du corps, et préside à toutes les fonctions.
Le coeur emprunte toutes ses forces de ce
même principe, de même que les autres parties en
empruntent le sentiment et le mouvement dont elles
sont douées, avec cette différence que le coeur
emprunte ses forces de tous les points de la moelle
sans exception, tandis que chaque partie du corps
n’est animée que par une portion de cette moelle
(par celle dont elle reçoit ses nerfs) ; différence qui
1 Edinburgh P hysical Essays, Vol. It pp. 282—285.
2 These experiments obviously contain the germ of the extraordinary
work of M. Flourens. See OEuvres de Legallois; Paris, 1824,
pp. 142, 143;