An elementary compendium of physiology : for the use of students / by F. Magendie ; translated from the French with copious notes, tables, and illustrations, by E. Milligan.

  • Magendie, François, 1783-1855. Précis élémentaire de physiologie. English
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An elementary compendium of physiology : for the use of students / by F. Magendie ; translated from the French with copious notes, tables, and illustrations, by E. Milligan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    easy to see any thing peculiar or advantageous in the substitution of an eel’s tail, which was made for the arm, in a Croonian lecture, by Sir G. Blane. Had he split the tail of the eel along the spine, then he might have got rid of the doubt above- mentioned, as to the compensating effect of antagonist muscles; but he never seems to have thought of this. In that part of the eel which he employed, the portion from the anus to the tail, no convulsive action whatever, or however pro- duced, made any alteration in the volume of the water, or its index. “ It had neither one effect nor other, nor did the muscles at any time occupy either more or less space than at another.”—Blane's Croonian Lectures on Muscular Mo- tion, ]>. 13. a, P. 131. See Santorini’s Work, p. 97. a, P. 132. The author probably means : “ because it regulates the vibrations which produce the vocal sound.” The present expression seems a slip of the pen. a, P. 134'. See Dodart’s Memoir, and Bichat. Our author has done much to illustrate the difficult physiology of the glottis, not merely by instituting his own experiments, but by reviving many of authors now forgotten. a, P. 144*. An excellent discussion of the principles of articulation may be found in Dr. Brewster’s Encyclopsedia. It was written by the late Dr. Gordon, and may be perused along with the present, and Haller’s chapter on the subject, with great advantage. Some of its conclusions, however, appear to be prema- ture. a, P. 145. A beautiful proof of this assertion occurred lately in H. R—ss, an acquitted felon, who happening to be recommitted for a new trial, attempted, by cutting his throat while in prison, to anticipate that punishment of his crime which, probably, seemed now inevitable. The instrument (a razor) had completely divided both the larynx, a little above the cricoid cartilage, and the (esophagus, at the same point; so that whatever was introduced into the mouth escaped by the external wound. Nature proved active, the law inadequate to his conviction ; but as the divided parte had retracted to more than three inches distance, no effort of the surgeon was sufficient to reunite them. In short, the cephalic extremities of the air and alimentary tubes became, in the process of recovery, obliterated, while the culprit, liberated from all dread of prison or gallows, continues to breathe, and feed, with little inconvenience, from their still pervious thoracic extre- mities ; the matters destined to make their transit by the oesophagus being conveyed into it by means of a tube. The following facts, which have been observed in the man, who is now quite well, establish the assertion of our author, “ and are otherwise interesting (says Dr. Gairdner, the narrator), in a physiological point of view.” 1. “ During each meal, and immediately after it, there is a very profuse dis- charge of saliva from the mouth, amounting to from five or six, to eight ounces, or even more, and generally most profuse when the food is very hot. i