Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.

nine. The next phenomenon observed by Faradaizing the me- dulla oblongata was, the actual cessation of the heart's action. From these trials, Professor Weber thought we might yet find that, where clonic cramps are seen, there exists a disease of the brain; while, if tonic cramps are observed in a patient, there exists disease of the medulla oblongata, or spinal cord. But up to the present time, such conclusions are not entirely proved. The Vital Spot. — At a meeting of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, M. Flourins took occasion to speak of the actual local- ity of the vital spot in the human organism, or primum mobile of the respiratory act. By several experiments, he has now de- termined that that spot is situated exactly at the point of the calamus scriptorius, between the ventricle of Aurentius and the junction of the V-shaped gray matter of the pyramids. This spot is, according to M. Flourins, about the size of a pill's head. Above or below the same, he found that a sharp-pointed instru- ment may be thrust in, without causing the respiratory move- ments to cease; but when this identical spot is transfixed, life ceases instantly. M. Flourins made this communication in order that the precise locality of the nodus vita should be well un- derstood. (See pp. 158, 264, 589.) May we not believe that the superior central ganglia (pineal gland) is the centre or president of the great ganglionic chain of nerves? Descartes long ago contended that it was " the seat of the soul." It is heart-shaped, and is centrally and securely situated in the middle of the base of the brain. It is evidently the seat of life, as vitality appears to reside peculiarly in the gan- glionic nerves.* If this ganglia be disturbed by a probe in the living animal, the eyes roll; if more disturbed, the animal moans, bleats, or screams, as with pain ; if compressed, the animal snores, and there is coma; if punctured with a fine needle, there are general spasms; if crushed, there is instant death. True, all the different kinds of nerves in the human organism are intimately connected together, and so we should study them; yet we must also know that their offices are classed in two great departments, viz., the organic and the animal. The brain is the centre or president of the animal nerves; and certain parts of the brain preside over mental and particular functions of animal life, (not phrenologically, but) as do the organic ganglia preside over the functions of the organs with which they are most directly connected ; each ganglion in the chain of the latter having a special duty, peculiarly its own, assigned to it; or, in other words, each organ has a special ganglion to preside over it. (See pages 247, 264.) And these ganglia I believe to be the very nucleus of much " reflex action.'' ♦See a recent work by Dr. O'Keilly, of New York, on the Anatomy of the Placenta, &c.