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

  • Bennet Dowler
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.

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    ceased had requested the post-mortem examination, and did not, it may be inferred, proceed prematurely. The operator liad long before pub- lished the greatest work on Anatomy that the world had ever seen (^De Corporis Humani Fabrica), and must have known what were the signs of death. From all these circumstances it may be inferred that the ac- cusation upon which the Inquisition condemned him to the most cruel tortures and death, and from which Charles V. saved him, was absurd in the liighest degree, and originated in that post-mortem contraction above described.* The tales now circulated, chiefly by some European writers, going to show that not a few persons have been buried alive, or have shown signs of life after the phenomena supposed to belong to real death had taken place, may have no better foundation in most cases, than that upon which Vesalius was exiled. It is, moreover, to be observed that the most cele brated writers upon this subject, and upon premature interment, seem to get their facts from reports and rumors not properly authenticated. Even M. Julia de Fontenelle, who has written elaborately upon this subject, seems not to have seen any of the cases which he has collected from all points of the compass, chiefly from the newspapers. Such facts afford at best “ A most laipe and impotent conclusion,” which must be productive of evil only, by arraying the strongest pre- judice against the progress of science and the increase of human happiness. I beg leave to add the following observations, suggested by an ex- amination of the last American edition of Bell’s Anatomy and Physiology, made since the above essay was written. In the articles entitled, “ The Muscular Power—The Discoveries of the Authorf etc., will be found . the statements following : The key to the system—is, each filament or track of nervous matter” [whether from the anterior or posterior portions of the spinal cord] “ has throughout its whole length, its peculiar en- dowment ; if its office be sensation, when injured, sensation, not motion, will result—that portion of the “ ulnar nerve formed of the anterior root of the spinal nerve, in all its extent constitutes one organ, and ministers to one function, the activity of the muscle of the hand and finger.”—“ The nerves have all the power of exciting motion.”—But, when he comes to speak of a muscle’s quivering and moving after its separation from the body, he is sorely puzzled. He does not, like Dr. Hall, pretend that the mere introduction of a probe into the spinal mar * It appears from the Boston Medical Journal, for January, 1846, tiiat a Dr. Waterman, of Buffalo, N. Y., has been sentenced to hard labor for three years, in the State Prison, for disinterring a dead body for dissection ! Has the age of Vesalius returned ^ Is it a crime to increase human happiness by increasing human knowledge, its indispensable element? Shall the worms on land and the sharks at sea, be entrusted with the whole knowledge of Anatomy ? Is that true philanthropy which seeks to save the ravisher and murderer from capital punishment, that he may be placed in prison side by side with an honest man, whose only crime consists in operating on the dead, that he may know how to operate on the living with safety? The Quack is privileged to kill with impunity ! Will he be in haste to change his ways—to become a good citizen—that is, to get a knowledge of his pro- fession, when the punishment of a felon is to be the reward of his pains ?