On the mammalian nervous system : its functions, and their localisation determined by an electrical method / by Francis Gotch and Victor Horsley.

  • Gotch, Francis, 1853-1913.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the mammalian nervous system : its functions, and their localisation determined by an electrical method / by Francis Gotch and Victor Horsley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    posteri(M- pai't hIcmic nnd in most cases opposite to the side to which the excitation was applied. CHAPTER III.—DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE METHODS EMPLOYED IN THE PRESENT RESEARCH. The description of the methods may be best effected by considering, in succession :— 1. Tlie method of ansesthesia employed. 2. The operative procedure. 3. The recording and exciting apparatus. 4. The general procedure and the precautions used. Section I.—Method of An/esthesia. The anajsthetic employed in these experiments was, in almost all cases, ether, the exceptional cases being those iu which some bronchial or nasal catarrh rendered it advisable to substitute chloroform, this latter giving a more even and steady narcosis, though at greater risk to the animal. The physiological action of ether has received considerable attention lately, and a few points in connection with it are of sufficient importance as bearing upon our experiments to warrant a more detailed notice. Ill the first place, it has been shown (Hooper, Semon and Horsley, Bowdttch, and others) that ether when present in the circulating blood through inhalation, appears to have a distinctly differential effect upon the two kinds (red and white) of muscle, or upon their innervation, i.e., centres, fibres, or nerve endings. Further that the direct application of the liquid or vapour of ether to the trunk of a nerve causes paralysis of its physiological conductivity.* (Hooper and Biedermann.) The investigations of FlourensI in 1847 had elicited the fact that the inhalation of ether produced physiological effects, in which the functional activity of the reflex centres was abolished before that of the conducting nerve paths, and this has been substantiated by the work of other investigators. It is with special reference to the action of ether upon these two structures that the present remarks are introduced, since, with the exception of the few experi- ments in which we employed tlie graphic method, our work has been entirely confined to the study of the changes in nerve centres and nerve fibres. It was consequently of primary importance for us to know to what extent the inhalation of ether has a differential action upon nerve centres as distinct from nerve fibres. In this connection experiments (Horsley and Spencer) have shown that the * Biedermann, 'Wien, Akad. Sitzber.,' vol. 97, 3 Abth., 1888. t Flouuens, ' Comptes Kendus,' vol. 24, 1847, p. 161.