cold on the days on which they died, was not of those convulsive movements which ordinarily sufficient to injure healthy animals. Our author accompany death." The effects of this operation has often observed that when both supra-renal on the heart's action must either be referred to capsules are removed, the one ten days or so the fact that this organ has its centre of action in before the other, the animal will survive for one the particular point of grey matter under conor two months, but that eventually it becomes sideration, or that the operation causes a shock debilitated, and at last dies suddenly. He is to the medulla oblongata analogous to that of thus led to think that the rats experimented upon galvanism, which produces precisely the same efby Dr. Harley came to their death by the effect fect upon the heart. The first supposition is renproduced by the removal of their supra-renal capsules, and not by any accidental cause. From his own extensive and valuable researches on this subject, Dr. Brown-Séquard draws the following conclusions:

"1. That the functions of the supra-renal bodies seem to be essential to life in animals that are not albinoes. "2. That the immediate and complete arrest of their functions quickly causes death.

"3. That the gradual suspension of their functions causes death at most after a few months, and in certain animals after a few days.

"4. That the simultaneous removal of both suprarenal capsules causes death generally more quickly than the removal of both kidneys.

"5. That if certain albinoes appear to be able to survive the removal of these bodies, the fact supports the opinion of Dr. Brown-Séquard, that one of the principal causes of death in animals which are not albinoes consists in the accumulation of pigment after the removal of these glands."

dered untenable by the continuance of the heart's action in an encephalous monster where the medulla oblongata is entirely absent, and by the fact that frogs may live for many months after the removal of this portion of the cerebro-spinal axis. Dr. Brown-Séquard asserts that the absence of the vital part alone does not necessarily stop or enfeeble the cardiac action, but that the irritation caused by the operation has much to do with it. In support of this he brings forward the following

facts:

1. He has ascertained that a simple pricking of the medulla oblongata is sufficient suddenly to diminish both the force and frequency of the heart's action.

2. If the pneumogastric nerves be first divided, as they were in ten animals operated on by Dr. Brown-Séquard, the removal of the vital point never suddenly stops or enfeebles the pulsations of the heart. "It seems, then, certain that one cause of sudden death in the removal of the vital point consists not in the absence of this portion of nervous matter, but in the irritation of the remaining portion of the medulla oblongata, and in the influence of this irritation on the heart's action."

That the arrest of the respiratory functions in these cases is a more frequent cause of death, the author acknowledges; and states what is doubtless true, that though respiration may cease and the heart's action continue for a time, yet the converse never takes place.

II. M. Flourens, in 1827, announced to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, that he had discovered a point in the medulla oblongata, the destruction of which led to instant death. This he named the "vital point," and considered it to be the centre of the respiratory movements. He placed it in the V-shaped portion of grey matter, just in front of the point of the calamus, on the floor of the fourth ventricle, and assigned to it a limit of three lines in length. Subsequently this gentleman, as the result of more extended observation, diminished the size of the vital point by two-thirds, and localized it at the very point of the V-shaped portion of grey matter. These From the researches of M. C. Bernard, Dr. conclusions were arrived at by making a series of Brown-Séquard, and others, it has been ascertained transverse sections of the cerebro-spinal axis of that galvanism applied to the pneumogastric trunks, living animals, from above downwards and from or their cranial extremities when these have been below upwards. When, in either case, the sec-divided, at once arrests the respiratory movetion passed through the point of grey matter in ments; and the last-named gentleman has often the beak of the calamus, life instantly ceased. observed respiration suddenly cease upon irritation In other animals, this point of grey matter alone of the medulla oblongata in the neighbourhood of was crushed, with as little injury as possible to the surrounding parts; in both cases the results were the same. "It is thus," says M. Flourens, on a point not larger than a pin's head, that the life of the nervous system depends, the life of the individual-in a word, life itself."

the "vital point." Applying, then, the same argument to the suspension of this function as was used in the similar case of the cessation of the heart's action, the author concludes that the arrest of respiration in these cases is due to the irritation applied to the medulla oblongata, and To ascertain the truth of this assertion of M. and not to the absence of the "vital point." He Flourens, Dr. Brown-Séquard undertook a series has also ascertained that if this point be carefully of experiments, which consisted chiefly in the removed without injury to the surrounding parts, careful removal of the "vital point." The study one rarely observes respiration arrested, and of the phenomena which follow the removal of more rarely still the stoppage or enfeeblement of this spot, says the author, are extremely interest- the heart's action." There appear to be yet other ing. "Sometimes the animal falls immediately, causes in operation which accelerate death in like one thunderstruck; it ceases to breathe, and these cases, namely, the entrance of air into the its heart scarcely beats, or, what is less frequent, veins, and the occurrence of pulmonary emphyseit stops entirely. Often there is scarcely a trace ma. In all Dr. Brown-Séquard's animals, where

From these and other observations, Dr. BrownSéquard concludes-1st, that death does not, always immediately follow the removal of the vital point; 2nd, that when death takes place suddenly, it is due in part to the sudden arrest of the heart's action; 3rd, that when either respiration or the heart's action is arrested, it is not owing to the removal of the vital point, but from irritation of the surrounding nervous substance; 4th, that the "vital point" of M. Flourens is not the focus of vital force, nor is it the nervous centre of the respiratory function; 5th, that the -vital point does not appear to be essential to life. The foregoing facts tend to weaken previously conceived ideas of the existence of a respiratory centre in the medulla oblongata, and they have led Dr. Brown-Séquard to his ingenious theory of the universality of the respiratory centre, if we may so term it a theory which denies to any We think we have noticed that persons who particular spot of nervous substance the exclusive | own large heads and lazy minds are rather prone

to believe in phrenology whereas the possessors of always exist, and the vast extent of British small crania are sceptical on this doctrine. In literature, we do not introduce to our readers respect to the observations of the connexion be- foreign works, unless their claims to notice are of tween mere size of brain and force, whilst we have a very extraordinary nature. On this ground, the example of Cuvier's immense brain on the one then, we need no apology for calling especial side, we have, on the other, according to M. attention to the Mémoire at the head of this Peisse, the facts, the head of a wonderfully-calcu- article. Its peculiarity is of so striking a kind, lating boy (Mangiamele) was depressed at the that we should be wanting in justice to the organ of Number; that Napoleon's skull was de- whole republic of letters were we to omit to point cidedly a small one, and was depressed in the it out. For it is a matter which concerns every region which covered in Number, Constructive-author personally, be he medical or not, that his ness, and Order, whilst neither Causality nor own proper labours, the hard-earned acquisitions Comparison were more developed than they are of his own industry and intellect, should not be on the skulls of ordinary men; and that in pilfered from him, and particularly that those Descartes, the front and upper region (the intel-acquisitions should not, in some more or less lectual part) was small. distant part of the world, be represented by another as his own creation and property.

The chapter "On the Physiological Potency of Ideas," is exceedingly interesting, and could it but be practically engrafted on the public mind would tend greatly to promote self knowledge.

The above work of M. Prò possesses this extraordinary peculiarity, namely, that every portion which is claimed by its author as original is literally translated from an English work, the source being wholly unacknowledged and even unnamed.

"The principal French and English authors who have studied strictures of the urethra having been

From the brief allusions we have made, it may be justly inferred, that Dr. Noble's work is both interesting and instructive. It is neither too lengthy to attract the unprofessional reader, nor The history of this precious production is as too prosy to please him. Some of the opinions follows: Mr. José Pro, in 1856, sent to the propounded, however, are, in the present state of Société de Chirurgie of Paris a thesis "On the knowledge, neither proven nor susceptible of Pathological Anatomy of Stricture of the Ureproof; and with the partiality natural to precon- thra," which was most favourably reported on, ceived views, we close Dr. Noble's book, uncon- its author moreover receiving the thanks of the vinced of the fallacy of our own creed, which Society and the title of Corresponding Member. differs from his in several particulars. For ex- The work is divided into three parts. The ample, we think we could show cause for consider- first comprises the anatomy of the urethra, and a ing that the cerebellum is the centre of impulse, synopsis of the views which French and English the medium through which the feelings and authors have held respecting urethral stricture emotions act upon the rest of the body, in addi- from the earliest period to the year 1855. The tion to being a great organ of reserve nerve-force second part professes to exhibit the author's own for the use of the spinal cord; that consciousness researches, and commences with the following is diffusible throughout the whole of the nervous sentence. system in degree varying with circumstances, so that we feel at the very ends of the nerves, and see in the retina as well as by the retina, so long as continuity exists between the nerve-ends and the brain that hunger and thirst are attributes of the ganglionic centres of the sympathetic; that This portion, which constitutes, as stated in the the self-sense is the attribute of all nerves and preface, "the body of the work," occupies twentynerve-centres, and so far as concerns the viscera, six quarto pages. Of these twenty-six, no less of the sympathetic ganglia; that mental emotion than twenty-three are literally translated from the has not any more special connexion with the self-second chapter of Mr. Henry Thompson's work sense than with any of the rest; that all nerves "On the Pathology and Treatment of Stricture equally influence the nutrition of the parts to which of the Urethra," which gained the Jacksonian they are finally distributed, and that their diversity Prize in 1852, and was published in 1854. The of function depends not upon one set acting centri- language is for the most part unaltered, and each petally and another centrifugally, but upon the manner and place of their peripheral and central terminations. But whilst we say this, we are aware that, in the absence of more proof than at present exists, we have no right to ask credence for unsupported propositions, still less to expect that the reader will, on such grounds, refrain from acquiescing in the opinion of the author.

passed in review, we shall now make known that which our own proper observations have discovered.”—p. 47.

paragraph follows the preceding precisely in the order of the original. Of course M. Prò, in his review of French and English authors" just referred to, studiously omits any mention of the work which furnished "his own proper observations on the subject.

The third portion of the work consists solely of extracts from the catalogues of the London museums, which M. Prò states he has visited; and the chapter in question, appropriated from Mr. Thompson's work, is given as the result of M. Pro's study of the preparations contained

WITH the great demands on our space which there.

been prosecuted with little intermission up to the present time. The results have been from time to time given to the world in communications to the French Academy of Sciences, in the periodicals of the day, or in Lectures delivered in Paris, in the United States, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and in the course just now concluded at the College of Surgeons.

essay of Mr. Dunn. He particularly points out, Pathology. Commenced in Paris, these investithe advancing development of the encephalon gations were subsequently carried on in the Mauaccording to one uniform type, as we ascend in ritius and in the United States, and they have the scale of vertebrate animals up to man. The corresponding development of consciousness, as manifested in what Cuvier called "the living experiments which Nature has presented to us in an ascending series, in the varying forms of animal existence," is carefully traced. And then the relations between the physical development of the encephalon in man and his intellectual endowments are attentively considered. Instinctive The French Academy of Sciences have fully actions he possesses, as he possesses cerebral or- acknowledged their sense of the value of Dr. gans physically analogous to those of animals Brown-Séquard's labours, by presenting him with which possess only instinctive actions. But above prizes, and with honorary and pecuniary rewards, and beyond these are higher grades of conscious- most of them for his researches on the nervous ness peculiar to man, and the relations between system, as well as for his investigations on the blood. these and the higher cerebral development are Nor is a just appreciation of Dr. Brown-Séably discussed in the essay of Mr. Dunn. He re-quard's merits confined to the scientific circles cognises three phases of consciousness, under of Paris. In America he has lectured to large which all mental phenomena are thus grouped:

"Sensori-motor, consensual and instinctive feelings and actions are the phenomena which formulate the sensational consciousness; to these are superadded ideation and volition, with their associates, memory and emotional sensibility, as the essential phenomena of the perceptive consciousness, and to these, imagination, imitation, articulate speech or language, ratiocination and the processes of thought and reflection, as the distinguishing attributes of the intellectual consciousness."

The development of the nervous apparatus more immediately in relation with the perceptive and intellectual consciousness, is made the subject of special study throughout this essay, and the conclusions and collected observations of the author, which are both original and thoughtful, will deserve the consideration with which they were received by eminent psychologists when first brought before the notice of the profession.

DR. BROWN-SÉQUARD'S LECTURES. DR. BROWN-SEQUARD has concluded his course of lectures, at the Royal College of Surgeons, amidst the enthusiastic acclamations of a crowded scientific audience. The interest created by these extraordinary discourses continued to increase up to the last moment of their delivery.

It is in the highest degree gratifying to introduce to our readers the productions of so distinguished a Physiologist; indeed, the author's name is a sufficient guarantee for their excellence. But lest some should hesitate to attach full weight to his experience, through not being acquainted with the long and arduous course of patient investigation that led Dr. Brown-Séquard to his brilliant discoveries, we take this opportunity of briefly sketching his scientific career.

Born a British subject, in an English colony, of an American father, more than fourteen years have elapsed since this gentleman entered upon a series of experimental researches on various animals, with a view to ascertain the truth on many of the more obscure points of Physiology and

and distinguished audiences of physicians and men of science, and has received most substantial proofs of appreciation from more than one institution in that country. In England, the Royal Society has, on two different occasions, voted to him a portion of the Government grant of money, entrusted to them to distribute in aid of scientific research. In 1856, Dr. Brown-Séquard received a tenth of the whole sum at their disposal, and in the succeeding year a considerable amount was awarded to him in furtherance of his eminently practical investigations. No greater compliment could be paid to the discrimination of the Council of the Royal Society than is now offered in the interest exhibited by the medical and scientific public in Dr. Brown-Séquard's Lectures. At these may be seen men in the highest rank of their profession and in active practice, who snatch an hour from their too short day to listen to a lecture, in which they cannot fail to hear something of direct practical interest. There, too, may be found the most accomplished physiologists of the day, content to be taught by one whose ingenuity and dexterity all cannot but admire, and whose opinions and trust-worthy observations they have learnt by experience to respect.

NECESSITY OF EFFICIENT VACCINATION.

THE student of the writings of JENNER cannot be more struck with the perfect confidence he expressed in the power of successful vaccination to guard the human constitution against small-pox, than with the great stress he invariably laid on the precise and very definite character of the affection of the system resulting from the introduction of vaccine lymph, from which alone that protection could be derived. His belief and teaching were, that it was impossible to be too cautious in the selection of lymph, too watchful in regard to the state of the health of the child to be operated on, or too attentive to the local action induced by the vaccination. He held that lymph taken from a vesicle which deviated from the normal type, or