“The central gray matter of the spinal cord. This has no connection with the higher senses. It is capable in itself of the simplest kind of reflex acts by means of the spinal nerves. These can be produced at the will of the experimenter, in the beheaded frog, when an irritation of the skin by an acid, etc., is created; and Robin has satisfactorily performed the same experiment upon a beheaded criminal. We have reason to believe that the spinal cord can be slowly and in a purely automatic way taught to perform certain series of muscular movements (as in playing scales upon a musical instrument, for example,) without any intervention of the higher ganglia.”
This is physiology. Is it true that the central gray matter of the spinal cord has no connection with the higher senses? The complicated movements which are performed by a person playing on a musical instrument, like the piano, for instance, are more than a simple reflex action of the spinal cord; and we do not believe that the spinal cord can be taught to perform such movements without the intervention of the higher ganglia. When one is learning to play the piano or other musical instrument, the higher centres are constantly in action, guiding and regulating the muscular contractions which go to make up the act of playing; after constant repetition under the guidance of the higher centres, the spinal cord and lower centres, as it were, learn and retain the combinations necessary to the performance of the act, all that is necessary is to start the particular combination, and the spinal cord will carry it on automatically.
The spinal cord cannot be taught to perform such complicated acts without the intervention and guidance of the higher centres to begin with.
Dr. Ranney has done a great deal of work in the preparation of this volume, and deserves much credit for his endeavors to collect this somewhat scattered material.
The work has numerous illustrations and diagrams, most of them exceedingly good, but we observe among them some of the worthless and often fanciful illustrations from Luys’, which are reproduced here.
J. C. S.
MISCELLANEOUS.
DR. J. B. MATTISON.
Dr. Mattison recently spent several weeks in Bermuda, and the British Med. Journal in reporting a meeting of the British Med. Association, held in the Town Hall at Hamilton, says:
By request of the Society, Dr. J. B. Mattison, of Brooklyn, gave an address on the subject of narcotic inebriety. Attention was called to the extensive use of opium, chloral, and cocaine, notably in France, Germany and America. The genesis of the disease was a physical necessity in many cases. The speaker said in proper cases his plan—an original one—was to secure an entire narcotic disuse by regular reduction, in ten days, meantime bringing the nervous system under the sedative influence of bromide of sodium, in initial doses of thirty grains, at twelve-hour intervals, increasing the dose ten grains daily, and reaching, if required, a maximum of one hundred and twenty grains at the end of the withdrawal period. The resultant reflex irritation was treated by hot baths, cannabis indica, hyoscyamus, coca, and electricity, with a subsequent tonic regime. The prognosis was good as to recovery, but in most cases, sooner or later, there was a return to the narcotic, due to a renewal of the original cause, or to other conditions beyond control. A vote of thanks to Dr. Mattison closed the meeting.