is administered, nothing more takes place than successive nauseas, and very seldom vomiting, notwithstanding the most. violent contractions of the abdominal muscles.

One of the commissioners having invited M. Magendie to cut the phrenic nerves on both sides of a dog still vigorous, whose abdominal muscles had been removed, and to make him swallow a gros (72 grains) of red oxide of mercury, the animal was very much agitated, and had nauseas, retchings, and painful alvine evacuations, but did not vomit. M. Magendie intends speedily to state the observations which he made on this occasion.

Most of these experiments prove sufficiently that the sto mach is entirely passive in the act of vomiting, and that the principal effect is produced by the diaphragm. Those that follow go still farther, since they demonstrate that vomiting may take place without the stomach.. They were repeated three times in our presence with the same result.

M. Magendie having cautiously (in order to avoid hemorrhages) made a ligature on each of the orifices of the stomach, removed that viscus altogether, and, after having sewed up the wound, in the belly, administered an emetic. In less than two minutes the dog exhibited all the symptoms which precede vomiting. We may even say that he actually vomited, for he threw out with effort and violent nausea the mucus of the oesophagus. Thus it appears that vomiting may in some measure take place without the stomach. It appears, then, that as far as vomiting is concerned the stomach is nothing but an inert bag, containing matters destined to be thrown out. And what other part in vomiting is it possible to ascribe to those schirrous stomachs whose coats have acquired some inches of thickness, and a hardness approaching to that of cartilage?

We have only another experiment to notice, and it is the most extraordinary and the most decisive of all those which we have seen.

In the place of the stomach, which had been cut out of several dogs, M. Magendie substituted a small hog's bladder, almost of equal capacity, to the neck of which a canula of caoutchouc had been adapted, which was thrust into the sophagus below the diaphragm, and kept in its place by a thread. These dogs were made to swallow water tinged yel low, with which the bladder was filled according as degluti tion took place. The opening of the belly having been sewed up, an emetic was introduced into the jugulars. Nausea took place in a short time, and the animals vomited the yellow water precisely as if it had come from a real and living stomach. The wound in the belly being laid open,

we

we easily observed at each strain the air descending in a current into the bladder, and distending it as if it had been a real stomach, which is not the least curious circumstance attending this experiment.

It only remains for us to submit to the Class some reflections which M. Magendie did not think it necessary to add to his memoir, though he did not fail to make them as well as ourselves, on the question whose destiny he has thus finally fixed.

These experiments prove not only that the stomach is passive in vomiting, they lead us to a more important result,' which throws new light upon the nervous energy, that wonderful energy which constitutes the whole of our being, the mysteries of which it is so much our interest to penetrate. We may deduce from the result of these experiments that the principle, the prime mover of all those movements which produce vomiting, has its source in the seat of the nervous energy itself; for we cannot otherwise explain how an emetic, which produces no action on the stomach, determines the contraction of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. We cannot have recourse here to those sympathies which have been so much abused in physiology, by advancing that the contraction of the stomach draws along with it by sympathy that of the muscles just mentioned. It is obvious that an emetic can only produce its effect by re-acting from the stomach upon that place of the seat of the nervous energy, where the principle of the contraction of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles resides. It is the affection of that part which is the immediate cause of vomiting. If the nerves, by which the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles receive the impression of it, were cut, the patient would have the same desire to vomit, and would have the sensation of vomiting without vomiting in reality. This is proved by the suspension of vomiting in M. Magendie's experiments on cutting the phrenic nerves. On the other hand, though these nerves, and all the rest of the body, remained untouched, if that portion of the seat of the nervous energy were disorganised, no emetic could give the animal either a desire to vomit, or produce in him the sensation of vomiting.

We have here a particular and very remarkable application of that general truth demonstrated by M. le Gallois, namely, that the seat of the nervous energy (the brain and spinal marrow) is the sole source of all the motions which take place in a living animal, and that no part can move without a particular and anterior modification of that part of the nervous energy by which it is animated. The obstinate yomiting which in many cases accompanies apoplexy, and

which had been ascribed to indigestion, had been already pointed out by M. le Gallois as a phenomenon entirely unconnected with every affection of the stomach, and totally depending upon that of the brain.

It remains to be known how an emetic introduced into the stomach can affect the seat of the nervous energy in a manner so as specifically to produce vomiting. Is it by irritating the nerves of the stomach? or is it absorbed, introduced into the blood, and transported by the circulation? Perhaps both of these modes of transmission take place, according to circumstances. The vomiting which we observe sometimes after cutting the nerves of the eighth pair, and which appears to be occasioned by the irritation which the superior segment of these nerves experiences, seems to favor the first mode of action; while the experiments of M. Magendie producing vomiting even in animals deprived of their stomach, by injecting an emetic into the blood-vessels, seems equally favor able to the second mode. His preceding experiments on the effect of upas, experiments made in concert with M. Delille, strengthen this last opinion. They prove that upas occasions those dreadful convulsions which so speedily destroy life, only when it is absorbed into the mass of the blood, and transported directly to the spinal marrow. It is very probable that almost all substances that have some effect on the animal economy act in this manner. This opinion leads us to views entirely new respecting the mode of action of most medicines and poisons.

Another question remaining to be answered, is to know the precise part of the brain or spinal marrow on which the efforts of vomiting depend. M. le Gallois has proved that the principle of the movement of inspiration is seated in that portion of the medulla oblongata which gives origin to the eighth pair of nerves. If we consider that the efforts of vomiting are executed by the muscles of respiration, that the nerves of the eighth pair supply the stomach as well as lungs, and that the disorder of the medulla oblongata in apoplexy occa sions vomiting, it will be rendered pretty probable that the efforts of vomiting are situated not far from those of respiration, if they have not the very same position. But it would be of importance to determine the point by direct experiments. Now that the general seat of the nervous energy is well determined, and clearly defined, one of the greatest objects of physiology is to know precisely the function peculiar to the different portions of that seat. Such objects deserve the attention of such accurate experimenters as MM. le Gal lois and Magendie; and those experiments, which they have already made so successfully, induce us to hope that they

will advance still farther in a career in which they know by experience that they are likely to meet with honor, glory, and reputation.

To conclude, we think, 1. That M. Magendie, to whom the Class has already given with so much pleasure proofs of its esteem and satisfaction for the experiments previously communicated, deserves new ones for those which he has just presented.

2. That his memoir on vomiting, destined to be ever after cited in physiological works, is worthy in the first place of being mentioned in the history of the labors of the Class, and of an honorable place in its memoirs.

3. That M. Magendie ought to be invited by the President to give to his experiments the farther developements of which they are susceptible; and to demand, if he thinks proper, a reimbursement of the expenses which he may have incurred, or may still incur, in the further prosecution of the subject; for we expect that he will examine with particular attention the phenomena of vomiting in birds, and other animals destitute of a diaphragm.

(Signed)

CUVIER,
PINEL,
HUMBOLDT,

PERCY, Reporter.

The Class approves of this Report, and adopts its conclusions.
Certified conformable to the original.

The Perpetual Secretary, Knight of the Empire,
G. CUVIER.

Vaccination in India.

The English have introduced the blessings of vaccination among all descriptions of people in Hindoostan; by which means the lives of thousands and tens of thousands are annually preserved. In this humane undertaking the Brahmins have risen superior to prejudice; and under their extensive and powerful influence, all other casts of Hindoos have adopted the practice. Many letters on this subject from eminent Brahmins to medical gentlemen in India do them honor; they contain the most liberal sentiments, and have been followed by a corresponding practice. Mooperal Streenivaschary, a Brahmin, thus writes to Dr. Anderson, at Madras, on vaccine inoculation :

"I beg leave to observe, for the information of the natives of this country, that I have perused the papers which you have published on that wonderful, healthful, and immortal vaccine matter, discovered on the nipples and udders of

some

some cows in England, by that illustrious physician, Dr. Jenner; whereby the loathsome, painful, and fatal smallpox has been prevented from seizing the many of our fellow-creatures in India, as well as in Europe.

"I am an eye-witness, as well as many others, that numbers of children here have been inoculated with vaccine matter, without any injury or blemish whatsoever, excepting a small spot at the place where the matter is applied, which is commonly in the arm. It is therefore greatly to be wished that an intimate knowledge of this wonderful discovery may be acquired by the natives of this country, so as to enable them to preserve the lives of the rich and honorable, as well as those of low casts. On this account, it might be useful to remove a prejudice in the minds of the people, arising from the term cow-pock, being literally translated comary, in the advertisement which has been published in our Tamul tongue; whereas there can be no doubt that it is a drop of nectar from the exuberant udders of the cows in England, and no way similar to the humor discharged from the tongue. and feet of diseased cattle in this country.

(Signed) MOOPERAL STREENIVASACHARY." As vaccination is now so generally adopted in Hindoostan, and likely to become a universal blessing in that populous part of the globe, it may be satisfactory to mention the following singular fact, respecting the antiquity of vaccination. in India, taken from the Asiatic Register for 1804; which is altogether a curious and authentic addition to a subject so interesting to humanity.

"The fact stated in the following translation of a written memorandum from the Nabob Mirza Mehady Ali Khan, who was long resident at Benares, that the effects of vaccination have been known for a great length of time in that celebrated quarter of India, is referred to the investigation of those who have the opportunity and ability, since they cannot want the inclination, to prosecute so interesting an inquiry. The undoubted intimation of this fact, that vaccination has been practised among the worshippers of Bowannee, will not detract an iota from the merits of the Jennerian discovery; the fortuitous and happy circumstance that led to the discovery in Europe, has been unquestionably and most satisfactorily proved, whilst the anxiety, study, perseverance, and indefațigable exertions, which have been applied by its benevolent professor to ensure the conviction of the world, in the unbounded benefits of the discovery, have entitled him to the lasting gratitude of mankind. The full ascertainment of the fact will only go to afford an additional instance of primeval oriental knowledge; whether acquired or accidental, is to be NO, 175. hereafter

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