The physiology and pathology of the cerebellum / by William A. Hammond.

  • Hammond, William A. (William Alexander), 1828-1900.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology and pathology of the cerebellum / by William A. Hammond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    18/44 (page 16)
    Every one knows, again, tlie salacity of monkeys, there are many whicli are excited to violent demon- strations by tlie sigkt even of a human female, and there are few which do not practise masturbation when kept in solitary confinement; yet in them the cerebellum is much smaller than in man, in whom the sexual impulse is much less violent. Budge ' made the discovery that in females irrita- tion of the cerebellum caused movements in the cor- nua of the uterus and tubes. He also found that a like exciting cause produced, in the male, movements of the testicles and vasa deferentia. Thus he says : By a lucky coincidence I made the gratifying ob- servation that in an old cat whose testicles lay in the abdominal cavity, these organs immediately after death moved whenever the cerebellum was irritated with the scalpel or with caustic potash. The effect was such that, whenever the right lobe of the cerebellmn and the right half of the vermifonn process were ii-ritated, movement of the left testis ensued, and the reverse. Mere superficial irritation sufficed to produce this re- sult. The movement of the testicles soon became -so palpable in this animal that there could be no doubt as to its reality. I hastened to open the entii'e skull and the abdominal cavity, and found the testicles lying perfectly still, without any trace of movement. On irritating one side of the cerebellum, the testicle of the opposite side swelled, quitted its position, and rose up so as to form a right angle with the spennatic cord, one side of the angle being directed forward. If I desisted from the irritation, the testicle returned to its position, and the movement was renewed on renewing the irri- TJntei-Buchungen liber das Nervensystem. No. ii., p. 82.