Abstract
THIS little brochure, which, though small, contains the result of much work, is divided into four sections. 1. On the reflectorial excitation of the voice in frogs. 2. On the physiology of generation in the frog. 3. On the inhibitory influence which can be exerted on the reflex actions; and 4. On the seat of the mind (Seele) in frogs; beside investigations on the centre for the maintenance of equipoise, and the centre for locomotion. It may be observed that notwithstanding the experiments were all undertaken in frogs, those little martyrs to science, yet that some of the results at least have a direct bearing on the functions of the centra in the higher animals, and even on man himself. The results of his experiments in reference to the seat of the mind are at variance with those of Pflüger and others, who hold that the spinal cord participates with the brain in its possession. M. Goltz maintains, on the contrary, that the brain is the exclusive seat of all intellectual processes, and consequently, that a frog from which the whole encephalon has been removed, is an organism presenting only a complex series of reflex processes. The removal of the cerebrum alone deprives the animal of all voluntary movement, and of all those faculties which are included under the general head of consciousness; it still retains, however, certain powers of o co-ordination. If the corpora quadrigemina are then removed, it no longer possesses the power of preserving the equipoise of its body or the accommodation of its movements. The corpora quadrigemina therefore, he concludes, constitute the centre for the maintenance of the equilibrium of the body. The cerebellum, on the other hand, is the centre for locomotion of the whole body.
Beiträge zur Lehre von den Functionen der Nerven-centren des Frosches. “Essays on the Functions of the Nerve-centres in the Frog.”
By. Prof. D. Fried. Goltz, of Konigsberg. pp. 130. (Berlin, Hirschwald, 1869.)
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Beiträge zur Lehre von den Functionen der Nerven-centren des Frosches. “Essays on the Functions of the Nerve-centres in the Frog”. Nature 1, 531 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/001531b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001531b0