Experimental researches on the post-mortem contractility of the muscles, with observations on the reflex theory / by Bennet Dowler.

  • Dowler, Bennet, 1797-1879.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experimental researches on the post-mortem contractility of the muscles, with observations on the reflex theory / by Bennet Dowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    184/] Hassall’s Microscopic Anatomy. 54 7 In reference to this development of heat, the author observes, “ the continue ance of, or rather the degree in which post-mortem heat is evolved bears no pro- portion, I repeat, to the intensity of post-mortem contraction. The great heat developed in the dead body, I have endeavoured to illustrate in the medical journals of our country, and will not, therefore, dwell upon that subject at pre- sent. I find, however, on examination of the original papers not yet published in detail, that for the most part, when the heat had declined the contractility was exhausted, but that the presence of great heat, ranging as high as ] 13°, did not by any means imply the presence of contractility, nor the absence of rigidity. Authors seem not to have been aware of the augmentation of animal heat after death; some have, it is true, noticed an increase of heat after death from cholera, compared with the extreme coldness of the surface during the last hours of life : but has any one hinted that this post-mortem heat ever rose as high as even the healthy standard, to say nothing of 14° or 15° beyond that?” P. 23. The cause of the contractions above described, and similar instances occurred in this country during the prevalence of cholera, is doubtless the rigor mortis, and is, therefore, independent of the nervous centres. Such is the conclusion of the author; but it is also the opinion of physiologists generally, in the present day. Mr. Bowman was the first writer who distinctly showed by microscopic observation, that the individual muscular fibres contracted independently of the presence of nerves ; and we have here the clue to the more extensive, but essen- tially the same phenomena related by Dr. Dowler, which, therefore, can have no bearing upon the question of the spinal action. If the republication of these views be the result of any peculiar importance attached to them on the other side of the Atlantic, we fear that modern physiology has not penetrated very deeply into the American professional mind ; with this remark we must dismiss these most crude “ Experimental Researches.” The Microscopic Anatomy of the Human Body in Health and Disease. Illustrated with numerous Drawings in Colour. By Arthur Hill Hassall. This work, we are glad to find, continues to appear regularly in the monthly Parts, as announced by the author in his prospectus; a point of some conse- quence to purchasers, when the irregularity of some other works is remembered. The plates are, on the whole, accurate and characteristic; and the text is suffi- ciently extended to convey a knowledge of the structures represented. There are, however, some omissions which might, with a little care, be avoided ; for example, in the description of the formation and growth of the nails, no notice is taken of what evidently concerns both points, namely, the disposition of the vascular papillae and loops lying beneath the nail and enclosing both sur- faces at the part called the root. Although these organs, the nails, are, as stated in the text, essentially formed of cells, and are therefore extra-vascular, still the disposition of the blood-vessels is a circumstance requiring consideration. The exact extent of the synovial membrane, and the relations of it to the articular cartilage, are not given with the precision of which the subject is now suscepti- ble, and which is required by the great importance of the question in its bearing upon disease. We merely allude to these matters in order that, in the future numbers, every attention should be paid by Mr. Hassall to details of this cha- racter. We can again speak in terms of commendation of this work, and doubt not, when completed, that it will be found a very useful compendium of minute anatomy.