the onset of action executed by the musculature under the driving of higher centres. Thus the well-known reflex spinal posture of the frog is flexion of the hind limbs, the extensors of the joints being taut and ready for the jump. The spinal reflexes, which in their results approximate most closely to the normal reactions of the unmutilated individual, are those connected with the pelvic and abdominal viscera,” many of which “are executed as spinal reflexes in a manner presenting little or no physiological defect from the normal. And if the bulb”--the continuation of the spinal cord within the skull to form the basal portion of the brain--“be included with the spinal cord, and these together, including their nerves, be isolated from the rest of the nervous system, the animal as regards its visceral life, including that of the heart and lungs, is practically intact.” Huxley graphically describes the actions of a frog from which the cerebral hemispheres have been removed. “If that operation,” he says,[192] “is performed quickly and skilfully, the frog may be kept in a state of full bodily vigour for months, or it may be for years; but it will sit unmoved. It sees nothing; it hears nothing. It will starve sooner than feed itself, although food put into its mouth is swallowed. On irritation, it jumps or walks; if thrown into water it swims. If it be put on the hand it sits there, crouched, perfectly quiet, and would sit there for ever. If the hand be inclined very gently and slowly, so that the frog would naturally tend to slip off, the creature’s fore paws are shifted on to the edge of the hand, until he can just prevent himself from falling. If the turning of the hand be slowly continued, he mounts up with great care and deliberation, putting first one leg forward and then another, until he balances himself with perfect precision on the edge; and if the turning of the hand is continued, he goes through the needful set of muscular operations, until he comes to be seated in security on the back of the hand. The doing of all this requires a delicacy of co-ordination and a precision of adjustment of the muscular apparatus of the body which are only comparable to those of a rope-dancer.”