II. The Croonian Lecture, on some physiological researches, respecting the influence of the brain on the action of the heart, and on the generation of animal heat

Abstract

Having had the honour of being appointed, by the President of the Royal Society, to give the Croonian Lecture, I trust that the following facts and observations will be considered as tending sufficiently to promote the objects, for which the Lecture was instituted. They appear to throw some light on the mode, in which the influence of the brain is necessary to the continuance of the action of the heart; and on the effect, which the changes produced on the blood in respiration have on the heat of the animal body. In making experiments on animals to ascertain how far the influence of the brain is necessary to the action of the heart, I found that when an animal was pithed by dividing the spinal marrow in the upper part of the neck, respiration was immediately destroyed, but the heart still continued to contract circulating dark-coloured blood, and that in some instances from ten to fifteen minutes elapsed before its action had entirely ceased. I further found that when the head was removed, the divided blood vessels being secured by a ligature, the circulation still continued, apparently unaffected by the entire separation of the brain. These experiments confirmed the observations of Mr. Cruikshank and M. Bichat, that the brain is not directly necessary to the action of the heart, and that when the functions of the brain are destroyed, the circulation ceases only in consequence of the suspension of respiration. This led me to conclude, that, if respiration was produced artificially, the heart would continue to contract for a still longer period of time after the removal of the brain. The truth of this conclusion was ascertained by the following experiment.