Experimental rescearches on the post-mortem contractility of the muscles, with observations on the reflex theory / by Bennet Dowler.

  • Dowler, Bennet, 1797-1879.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experimental rescearches on the post-mortem contractility of the muscles, with observations on the reflex theory / by Bennet Dowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    15/40 (page 15)
    was two hours after death, I struck the arm with the inferior edge of my extended hand. The subject contracted his arm, carrying his hand to his breast. My aid looked to the door, which had been closed beforehand, and begged to be let out without delay. It was, therefore, very recently that I began to regard contraction thus excited in its most elementary character, as an important point of depar- ture in the analysis of some of the most interesting problems in physiolo- gy,&c. It cannot be repeated too often, that the simplicity of a method is a great recommendation, while complexity gives rise to suspicion when an explanation is offered, and at the same time, increases the chances of error. Professor Liebig has said with much force, that “ if a method of investigation bear in any degree the stamp of perfection, the result may always be given in a few words ; but these few words are eternal truths.” I take for granted, until the contrary is established by experiment, that the reader will admit as true the facts set forth in this monograph. It may be asked, however, whether these facts are new ? I know that cer- tain men declare that there is nothing new in medical science. Let such read Jeremy Bentham.* What does Sir Charles Bell say of the muscular motions which he excit- ed, and upon which, he, more than on anything else, founds his great dis- covery—if such it be ? I say nothing of the kind of animals upon which he experimented ; nothing about his knocking them half dead by blows on the occiput; nothing of the complex and uncertain character of a dissection of the spinal cord of an animal which might have been dead or alive, for aught we know. His own account shows what kind of con- tractions his experiments produced. In his work on the nervous system, he quotes with approval, M. C. Hawkins’s account of these experiments, “ which,” as he says, “ show that when the anterior roots were pinched by the forceps, or pricked by the scissors, an evident motion was produc- ed, perceptible to the eye he even goes on to insist that this was some- thing more than “ the slight tremulous motion from the natural irritabi- lity still remaining in the muscles.” It is most evident that he never dreamt of regular, periodical flexions and extensions of entire limbs load- ed down with heavy weights. His experimentum crucis on the motor * “ Wisdom of ancestors,” says Bentham, “ is a Chinese argument. The reigning prejudice in favor of the dead lies not very deep—a dead man has no rivals—to no- body is he an object of envy,—in whosesoever way he may have stood wdien living, when dead he no longer .stands in anybody’s way. If he was a man of genius, those who denied him any merit during his life, even his very enemies, changing their tune all at once, assume an air of justice and kindness which costs them nothing, and enables them under pretence of respect for the dead to gratify malignity to the living. Another class habitually exalts the past for the purpose of depressing and discouraging the present generation.” “ You may turn over whole volumes of anti- quity without discovering a solitary truth to make amends for your pains. For ten propositions evidently false, and ten times the number of unintelligible ones, you will scarcely find a single one that is true. A preference for the ancients is a most pernicious ])rejudice, reversing the whole order of nature. The acorn must be larger than the oak it will become. A man must be wiser in his mother’s womb, than in the vigor of manhood. Everything must grow backwards. New experiments added to the subsisting stock must lessen the number. It is scarcely possible to believe a man to stand bona fide on so noxious a system. If he do, grieve over him, but treat him as an enemy to knowledge and to that happiness which is founded upon know- ledge. The public interests require that his notions rise not into credit.”—Ben- thani’s Book of Fallacies ; Deontology.