Only in the last few years have physiologists succeeded in preserving
alive for some time dogs of which nearly all the convolutions of the
brain had been removed. Professor Goltz brought a dog in this state
from Strasburg to London, in order to show the phenomena which an
animal then presents, at the International Congress of Medicine. I
extract a few fragments from Professor Goltz’s work,[9] in order to
give an idea of the phenomena exhibited by dogs when deprived of a
great part of their brain.
[9] F. Goltz: _Ueber die Verrichtungen des Grosshirns_, p. 61, and
following. Bonn, 1881.
A brainless dog has a stupid, inane look. One reads idiocy even in
his eyes. His movements are slow and uncertain. It seems as though he
needed far more time than usual to come to a decision. His gait is like
that of a goose, there is something inexpressibly strange and comical
in it. The animal always walks straight on like an automaton. If he
meets another dog, he steps over him if he is little; if he is big
he may lift him with his head, or knock him down, but on he goes. He
tries awkwardly to step over every object he meets, although by simply
stepping aside he might pass on without hindrance. He only finds his
dish of food with difficulty, smell guiding him better than sight; he
snaps stupidly at everything he sees, even biting his own paws till he
howls with pain. He can no longer find the fragments of bone that fall
out of his mouth while chewing.
Dogs like these are no longer capable of learning anything, and one
might almost say that they have forgotten what they already knew; for
instance, they no longer give their paw to their master, as they used
to do. Their whole intellectual life is extinguished; only when they
hear a knock at the door do they bark, but they always begin too late.
Two dogs that hated each other, bit each other when they met, even
after both had lost a great part of their brain. Memory diminishes
in proportion as larger quantities of the brain are removed, and
disappears wholly when nearly the whole organ is wanting.
III
In order better to understand the working of the brain, we may divide
it in imagination into two parts: a lower, situated at the base of the
cerebral hemispheres, which forms the direct continuation of the spinal
cord and is the centre of those movements which arise involuntarily
during emotion; and another part in the upper story, as it were, which
consists of the cerebral convolutions, is also in connection with the
spinal cord, and must be considered as the seat of voluntary movement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account