Physiological Researches on Life and DeathBichat, Xavier
Science
Physiological Researches on Life and Death
Bichat, Xavier
Death (Biology); Life (Biology)
2dly. There are reptiles, in the brain of which no motion whatever
is occasioned by the heart. The frog is of this species. On raising
the upper portion of the cranium, and exposing the brain, there
cannot be perceived the slightest motion. Now in this species, and
that of the salamander, the influx of blood may be cut off from
the cerebral organ without occasioning the immediate death of the
animal. The voluntary muscles for instance continue to act; the
eyes to exhibit a lively appearance, the tact also of the creature
is manifest for some time after the heart has been taken away,
or the double branch which proceeds from the single ventricle of
these animals has been tied.[60] I have frequently repeated these
experiments, and have constantly found the effect the same.
3rd. It is a general observation, that those animals which have a
long neck, and in which the heart for that very reason is not so
capable of exerting a lively influence over the brain, have a more
limited intellect, and the cerebral functions less marked. On the
contrary a very short neck, and the approximation of the heart to
the brain very generally are found to coincide with the latter.
Similar phenomena are sometimes observed in men. They who have the
neck particularly long are dull, they who have it short, for the
most part intelligent and lively.
From these many facts we may confidently assert, that one of the
means, by which the heart maintains the brain in action, consists
in the habitual movement, which it impresses on it.
But this movement is essentially different from that which in the
other viscera, such as the liver, or spleen, is derived from the
same cause. In these it is little manifest, in the brain it is very
apparent; the reason is evident; the large arterial trunks of the
brain, are situated at its base, between the brain and its bony
parietes; in consequence of which, at each diastole, the vessels
experience a resistance from the bone, which is communicated
immediately to the cerebral mass. At such time the brain is really
lifted, just in the same way as we see a tumour lifted by the
arteries which creep along the bones beneath it; and instances of
this are frequent. So apparent indeed is the motion of tumours when
they are situated over the carotid, as it lies upon the vertebral
column, or over the femoral artery, immediately after its passage
under the crural arch, as often to occasion doubts with respect to
their nature.
But no other organ is enclosed within a bony cavity; the motion of
the arteries every where else, is lost in the surrounding cellular
substance, or soft parts. Such motion, then, is unessential to the
functions of the liver, the kidney, and other analogous viscera.
The integrity of the functions of the brain, is not only dependent
on the mere motion, but on the sum also of the motion communicated.
It is equally impaired by too much, or by too little motion. Of
this assertion the following experiments are proofs.
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