This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1871. Excerpt: ... Take the brain which has been of all organs the most enticing to the physiologist, and the knife, forceps, and chisel of the vivisector. After an amount of torture which the mind shrinks from contemplating, what do we obtain? Speculation! Gratiolet, one of tho most learned men on this and kindred subjects, says," Let us confess that in our ignorance of the true construction of the medulla, the peduncles, and the optic thaiami, the question is abandoned to the speculations of physiologists. Dr. Kellie first started the notion that the quantity of blood within the cranium was constantly the same. Without fully informing himself as to the anatomical peculiarities which have since been pointed out, he hastened at once to the favourite method of seeking to verify conjecture; he bled sheep, cats, and dogs to death, and hung others with the head downwards. He imagined he was justified in these experiments by having discovered a new feature in the circulation of the brain; but Dr. Burrows, Breschett, and others, have shown that he was entirely wrong, and that a sufficient knowledge of anatomy would have prevented this torture. Ignoring altogether the teachings of pathology or observation, the sensitiveness of the brain has been a moot point with experimenters. Aristotle and Galen believed the cerebrum insensible, and numerous vivisectors have shared this opinion. But Haller, Zinn, and Serres, after the usual amount of cruelty, came to a different conclusion; the animals they experimented upon became convulsed, screamed, and uttered painful cries when this part was punctured or sliced away. MM. Plourens, Longet and Colin, thereupon set themselves to work upon all kinds of animals, from horses and dogs downwards, and the conclusion they came to was, that sensibilty...