IMPORTANT PHYSIOLOGICAL DISCOVERY.

Evening Star, Issue 3283, 28 August 1873, Page 3

IMPORTANT PHYSIOLOGICAL DISCOVERY.

The London correspondent of the Dundee Advertiser states that Dr Ferrier, of King’s College, London, has made an important series of experiments on the use of the convolutions of the brain. These have been effected by means of vivisection. The brain having been laid bare, the centres of sensation are distinguished by means of an electrode. On the table before you is the dog with its skull removed. All seems, but for the breathing and movement of the brain, an inert mass of dead matter. The doctor applies the electrode, and presently the tail begins to wag. All else is motionless. Another touch, and its forepaw fs stretched out; another, and its head is erected ; another, and its mouth opens. Again the magic wand touches the brain, and the animal seems convulsed with fear and rage, and so on the experiments go. One of the great results attained by Dr Ferrier is that tlie great motion centres are collected in the front part ot the brain; and another, that the main use of the cerebellum is to supply the muscles of the eye. He has found out why portions of the brain may be diseased without interfering with sanity, and why other slight lesions produce epilepsy. He also found out the origin of chorea or St Yitus’s dance, and has been able to make bis animals show all the symptoms of the disease artificially. Altogether the discovery opens a new path in the treatment of disease.