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

eyes again, notwithstanding the pain he is all the while experi- encing ; nor indeed is he able to shut them, for they are kept open as long as the current traverses the nerve, while the redness caused by the ammonia also diminishes, and soon entirely dis- appears. According to Dr. Althaus, of England, we see that these phenomena have been investigated by many scientific men, as Dr. Augustus Waller, of Birmingham; Professors Budge and Schiff, of Berne; and Dr. Brown-Sequard; all of whom cor- roborate these facts, and besides have added new ones regarding the physiology and pathology of the sympathetic nerves, all of which may be given as follows: By a section of the cervical ganglionic nerve, nearly all the muscles of the eye and of the angles of the mouth, and of the nostril, become permanently contracted. The ear of the animal is held erect; the quantity of blood, not only in the ear, but in that whole side of the head, is decidedly increased ; the arteries are fuller and beat with more force; the temperature is increased for a length of time; the current proper of the muscles is stronger; poisons and other substances which are deposited in equal quantities on the two sides of the head,—i. e., under the sub-cutaneous cellular tissue of the face, or at the base of the ears,—are found to be more rap- idly absorbed on that side where the section of the nerve had been made; but chloroform destroys the sensibility there much sloiver than on the sound side ; the rigor mortis appears later, and lasts longer; putrefaction begins later. It is found also, that nearly all the phenomena observed as the consequence of severing the cervical sympathetic, may be produced by any means whatever that will simply increase the amount of blood circulating in the blood vessels of the head in a given time; as by holding the animal up by its hinder legs, which produces a strong congestion of the head, and con- traction of the iris, &c. Hence we infer, that all, or nearly all, these phenomena are due to the deranged condition of the blood vessels, brought about by the division of the cervical nerve, thus enlarging their calibre and allowing more blood to pass through these vessels in a given time. When the entire cervical sym-