An Account of Some Discoveries Concerning the Brain, and the Tongue, Made by Signior Malpighi, Professor of Physick in Sicily

the wound being closed, and the Dog let go, he went into all the corners of the Room searching for meat, and having found some bones, he fell a gnawing of them with a strange avidity, as if this Liquor had caused in him a great appetite. 4. Another Dog, into whose veins some Oyl of Tartar was injected, did not escape so well: For he complained much, and was altogether swollen, and then died. Being opened, the Spectators were surprised to find his blood not curdled, but on the contrary more thin and florid than ordinary; which seems to hint, that a too great fluidity of the blood, as well as its Coagulation, may cause death. An Account of some Discoveries concerning the Brain, and the Tongue, made by Signior Malpighi, Professor of Physick in Sicily. 1. He pretends to have discovered, that the Exterior and softer part of the Brain, doth not cover only the Corpus callosum, as hath been believed hitherto, but is also inserted into it in many places. He hath also observed, That the Corpus callosum is nothing but a Contexture of small Fibres, issuing from the Medulla Spinalis, and terminating in the said Exterior part of the Brain. And these Fibres, he saith, are so manifest in the Ventricles of Fishes brains, that when they are looked through they represent the figure of an Ivory Comb. 2. The Use, which he ascribes to the Brain, is much different, he saith, from what hath been assigned to it hitherto. He pretends, that as half, or at least, a third of the blood of an Animal is conveyed into the Brain, where yet it cannot be consumed, the finest Serum of this blood is filtrated through the exterior part, and then entering into the Fibres of the brain, is thence conveyed into the Nerves: which he affirms to be the reason, that the Head is so often found full of water, when the Brain hath received a wound, or an alteration by some distemper. 3. He hath taken a particular care of examining the Optique Nerve in divers Animals, it being one of the most admirable productions in the Brain. Having therefore among other Fishes dissected the head of a Xi- phias or Sword fish, who hath a very big eye, he hath not observed any considerable cavity in the Optique Nerve, nor any Nervous Fibres; but found, that the middle of this Nerve is nothing else, but a large Membrane folded according to its length in many doubles almost like a Fan, and invested by the Dura Mater. Eustachio a famous Anatomist, had written something of this before, but obscurely, and without mentioning the Animal, wherein he had made this observation. 4. The same Malpighi thought he should have met with the same thing in Terrestrial Animals; but he found, that Fishes alone have such a structure of the Optique Nerve: For that of an Ox, Fg, and other such Animals, is nothing but a heap of many small Fibres of the same substance with the Brain, wrapped about with the Dura Mater, and accompanied with many little vessels with blood. Hence he draws the decision of that great question among Anatomists; Whether the Optique Nerve be hollow or not? For, saith he, it cannot be otherwise, but there must be many cavities in this Nerve; forasmuch as the small filaments, of which it is composed, cannot be so closely joined, that there should not be some void space betwixt them. 5. Concerning the Tongue, the same Author hath discovered in it many little Eminences, which he calls Papillary, and believes to be the principal Organ of Taste.* But here is not to be omitted the Observation of Fracassati, importing, that as the Tongue hath towards its point many Eminences, by the means whereof it goes, as it were, to meet objects of Taste; so on the contrary, it hath many cavities towards its root, wherein it receives them. All which cavities terminate in nerves, and seem to serve for Funnels to convey the aliment into them. Which maketh the Author think it very probable, that the finest part of the aliment passeth immediately from the Tongue into the Nerves, whence it comes to pass, that Wine, being only taken into the mouth, restoreth vigour presently. An Experiment of Signior Fracassati upon Blood grown cold. When any blood is become cold in a dish, that part which is beneath the superficies appears much blacker, than that on the top; and 'tis vulgarly said, that this black part of the blood is Melancholy blood, and men are wont to make use of this example to shew that the Melancholy humor as 'tis called, enters with the others into the composition of the blood. But Signior Fracassati maintains, that this blackish colour comes from hence, that the blood, which is underneath, is not expos'd to the Air, and not from a mixture of Melancholy: to prove which he assures, that upon its being expos'd to the Air it changes colour, and becomes of a florid red. An Experiment as easy to try, as 'tis curious.