Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 60.djvu/446

414 characters of the condition. The details of the results will be given in a fuller paper dealing w ith the subject. I was prevented from inquiring thoroughly into the phenomenon when it was first met with ; but in the course of the present summer and autum n the investigation has been system atically undertaken. I will conclude this prelim inary note by adding th at throughout the observations the anim al’s respiration remains apparently unaffected by the stimuli effective to produce the various reflexes and inhibitions such as above described. The respiration is tranquil, rath er deep, regular, and often somewhat frequent. The anim al in all my experim ents has been completely blind, b u t a sharp conjunctival reflex exists. The knee jerks are elicitable but are not exaggerated. The tonus of the sphincters appears about normal. The pulse is full, regular, and fairly frequent.

I have not at present succeeded in evoking the cataleptoid reflex by simply placing the lim b in the desired posture.

In applying the term cataleptoid to these reflexes, I do so because the reflexes recall, in some respects, strikingly certain phases of hypnotic condition, by some w riters distinguished as cataleptic, and because the strict significance of the prefix implies a steady maintenance of possession subsequent to seizure, and is therefore peculiarly applicable here, whether these reflexes be or be not allied to hypnotic catalepsy.

In a form er number* of these ‘ Proceedings ’ attention was drawn to a particular form of correlation existing between the activity of antagonistic muscles. In it, one muscle of an antagonistic couple is, it was shown, relaxed in accompaniment w ith active contraction of its mechanical opponent. The instance then cited was afforded by certain of the extrinsic muscles of the eyeball, but I had previously noted indications of a like arrangem ent in studying the reflex actions affecting the muscles at the ankle-joint of the frog,4 and it seemed probable th at the kind of co-operative co-ordination demonstrated for the ocular muscles m ight be of extended application and occurrent in various motile regions of the body. The observations to be mentioned below do actually extend this kind of reciprocal innervation

f Foster’s * Journ. of Physiol.,’ vol. 13, 1892.
 * Vol. 52. April, 1893. Sherrington,