BENNETT DOWLER. A FORGOTTEN PHYSIOLOGIST*

By WALTER J. MEEK. Ph.D.

MADISON, WISCONSIN

T WOULD seem that a physiolo­ nent member of the American Medical gist who had written thirty vol­ Association and Chairman of its Com­ umes of manuscript on his sci­ mittee on Medical Science for 1850-51. ence and who had actually seen He repeatedly refused professorships in Ieleven hundred pages published, shouldvarious medical schools as well as politi­ have some claim to permanent remem­ cal offices which were urged upon him brance among his kind. And yet this by his fellow citizens of New Orleans. voluminous writer is now almost un­ Bennett Dowler was born in Eliza­ known. His pamphlets are among the beth. Ohio County, Virginia, April 16, rarities of the Surgeon General’s Li­ 1797- He was the son of Edward Dowler brary. far too valuable to be sent out by and Elizabeth Riggs. He was educated express or mail, but only the most mea­ in Virginia and Pennsylvania though ger details of his personal life can be there is no record of the schools he at­ unearthed. Even New Orleans,1 for tended. He then entered the Univer­ many years his home, no longer seems sity of Maryland and his name is found to remember him. and the biographi­ in the roster of the medical graduates cal cyclopedias do not agree on the date for the year 1827. He first settled in of his death. Clarksburg, Virginia, now West Vir­ No doubt if Bennett Dowler could ginia, and was postmaster there from revisit his native haunts he would in a 1832-36. Presumably he practiced med­ thirty-first volume of folio manuscript icine there during this period. In 1836 bewail the indifference and forgetful­ he moved to New Orleans where he be­ ness of posterity for one of its great came one of the leading medical men medical scientists. Such is the fickleness and where he lived until his death. of fame, for in 1858 this man was a cor­ Whether this occurred in 1866 as stated responding member of the Academy of by the Biographisches Lexicon and the Science of St. Louis, a corresponding Index of the Surgeon General’s Li­ member of the Society of Statistical brary, or in 1879 as stated by Kelly and Medicine of New York, a member of Burrage in their American Medical Bi­ the Academy of Natural Sciences of ographies, cannot at the present mo­ Philadelphia, a fellow and member ment be absolutely decided. of the Medico-Chirurgical College of His character can be deduced only Philadelphia, a member of the Medical from his writings. Unquestionably he Society of Virginia, and the Royal Med­ was loyal to his friends. One of his con­ ical Society of Copenhagen, a fellow tributions to Physiology is dedicated in and founder of the Society for North­ these words: “To Samuel Cartwright. ern Antiquities, Copenhagen, a perma­ m.d. Distinguished as a Philosopher, * Read before die Medical History Seminar, University of Wisconsin, at the home of Dr. William Snow Miller. honored as a Physician, admired as a invented experimental illustration. This man, this essay is most respectfully in­ eager love of appearing in print at all haz­ scribed by the Author, New Orleans, ards finds also profuse self indulgence in 1849.” dreary controversial papers, which are Among his contemporaries he had only too common in some of our journals, and of whose multitudinous dullness no his admirers and evidences of the re­ luckless bibliographer has yet taken the spect in which he was held are scattered census. through southern medical journals of the fifties. In the ATzc Orleans Medical Dowler must have dearly loved a con­ Nezes and Hospital Gazette is an arti­ troversy. Although he was rather varied cle on “Medical Notes and Reflections” in his fields of experimentation, noth­ by Dr. J. E. Thompson.6 The author’s ing stirred him up like the mention of thesis is that southern diseases require Magendie, Charles Bell and Marshall southern treatment. Whether or not Hall. Ebe neurological theories of this was a result of the political cleav­ these men, particularly those having to age of the time I cannot say, but at the do with reflex action, were just coming head of the article is this quotation into prominence, and they brought out from Bennett Dowler: “Southern cen­ all his fiery satire and invective, but to ters require southern laborers . . . his great credit, also a mass of experi­ Observe, think, write, publish.” mental work. His interpretations, as we Dr. Thompson at least thought shall see later, were erroneous. He highly of the southern physiologist or could not quite keep the pace of sci­ he would not have quoted him so re­ entific advancement. But he was a spectfully at the beginning of his ar­ doughty warrior and in his latter years, ticle. though realizing that for the present Dowler’s devotion to scientific medi­ defeat was inevitable, he still stuck by cine was at all times unquestioned, his guns and consoled himself with this though occasionally one might say it homely philosophy: ■was a bit obtrusive. He dearly loved to Unlike a prisoner at the bar, an inno­ philosophize and the introduction to a vator has this consolation, namely that if description of experimental work some­ the present jury shall condemn him un­ times occupied several pages of ram­ justly, he can look with confidence to a bling, but always interesting, remarks future which soon or late will do him and only indirectly related to the business itself justice by embracing the truth, al­ at hand. Phis habit of diffuseness, of in­ though probably for a time dulging in a round of intellectual high­ It will be found on examination balls before the real work could be That Satan has the largest congregation. touched, -was of course somewhat char­ Satan is a delicate reference to Bell and acteristic of the times. It was this atti­ Magendie. tude among the physiologists ’who Dr. Dowler was not unaware of his should have known better that led S. own peculiar merit and on many occa­ Weir Mitchell in 1858 to say: sions he did not hesitate to sing the No one can read our journals without praises of one named Bennett Dowler. being struck with the number of theoriz­ I11 the July number of the American ing papers, parading long lists of facts de­ Medical Gazette for 1859 *s an article rived from the pages of other writers, 011 Bennett Dowler copied from the without an effort to add one new or freshly New American Cyclopaedia. Although I am not familiar with the methods his methods and vivisection, which he used by the Cyclopaedia, it is more so steadfastly practiced, nevertheless than probable that Dr. Dowler wrote came in for criticism and good round the article himself and paid a certain oratory: sum to have this appreciation of his The method of detecting function by work and character inserted among vivisection is bad, yet where can a better pages devoted to the country's great. be found? The histologist is reduced to His restraint is, however, rather to be the sad alternative of remaining in a great commended although the closing sen­ degree ignorant if he rejects all methods tence shows he had all due regard and not directly demonstrative. He records in appreciation for his subject: “The as­ an artificial condition, a natural condi­ siduous devotion of Dr. Dowler to the tion; in a part, the whole; in analysis, syn­ researches connected with medical and thesis; in decomposed forces, compound physiological science has won for him a forces; in vital maelstroms, cataracts and wide reputation as an experimenter, an crevasses, the smooth, noiseless, equable and ever-flowing river of life; in concen­ anatomist and a pathologist." trated agony, the concentration of animal He evidently used the word “experi­ happiness, that is the laws of perfect menter" as synonymous for physiolo­ health; in an incomplete death he takes gist. which speaks for his intelligence his lesson upon the complete science of and endears him to us today. The arti­ life. Like the tempest tossed Columbus in cle also states that since 1854 he had search of the new world, he finds here and been editor of the New Orleans Medi­ there the drifting fragments from myste­ cal and Surgical Journal. rious shores—now a light! land! land! and A great deal of Dr. Dowler’s experi­ like the enraptured mariner chants Gloria mentation was carried out on the south­ in excelsis. ern alligator, an animal to which he was This is a style of writing in which in a certain way quite devoted. But let Dowler took great delight. It appears us quote his own words on the subject: in the introduction to most of his pa­ For the anatomical rather than for phys­ pers or perhaps tucked away in the body iological reasons, my vivisections have of a more prosy scientific discussion. It been chiefly confined to the alligator, an doubtless relieved his seriousness and animal whose anatomy, physiology and probably he practiced it therapeutically psychology place it above frogs, turtles for the sake of mental relaxation. and salamanders which have been gener­ Dowler, though filled with emotion ally relied on by experimenters. How un­ over his scientific controversies, was sel­ like soever the alligator is to man, these dom bitter. On one occasion, however, latter are more so. If frogs are good, alli­ this note creeps in. In writing on the gators are better. capillary circulation, a subject to which He considers cold-blooded animals I shall refer later, the following para­ superior to others, since dissection does graph appears. not disturb their physiological func­ If these experiments shall prove noth­ tions, an opinion with which the great ing more than the doctrine of independ­ Dr. Carpenter concurs. ent circulatory force of the capillary sys­ His methods were those of the usual tem of man they will have accomplished vivisector and almost his only piece of more in physiology and in pathological recording apparatus, his own eyes. He anatomy than most of the experiments on was not quite aware of the pitfalls in frogs with galvanism, dignified with the name of Electro-physiology, Excito-motory says that from an early period in his ca­ system, etc. It is true that these vivisec­ reer experiments on the human body tions (often macle at the expense of the immediately or very soon after death state and by salaried professors) have, in occupied much of his attention. The the estimation of certain persons, so great results of his investigation comprised a dignity from the state ceremonial, as to important discoveries with regard to compensate for their otherwise worthless character-experiments as remote as possi­ contractility, calorification and the cap­ ble from man and his healthy and morbid illary circulation. They were Hrst given conditions. to the world in his essays of 1843-44. Later these experiments were in most It is rather evident that the profes­ cases extended and more closely ana­ sional physiologist, who was just begin­ lyzed and published in the New Or­ ning to appear on the Amercian scene, leans Medical and Surgical Journal of was to Dowler a subject of derision. which he was editor for a number of This feeling overpowered him on an­ years. Of them he made the proud other occasion when referring to a clas­ statement that “with one exception he sification of nerves proposed by Dun- has found in the course of his experi­ glison, Professor of Physiology at the ments no fact invalidating the funda­ University of Virginia: mental laws which he announced in his “This is a fair statement,” he says, first publication.” “of the existing doctrines of these so- Dowler was greatly interested in the called ‘distinguished’ physiologists. In post-mortem contraction of muscle. Al­ what code of morality do ‘distin­ though Haller had many years before guished’ physiologists get a -warrant to shown that muscular irritability did not assert as physical or anatomical facts, necessarily depend on the central nerv­ that -which no one has ever seen—no ous system, this fact had doubtless been one has ever demonstrated.” Either a forgotten or ignored in view of the gen­ strong feeling of jealousy or a certain eral enthusiasm for the nervous reHexes degree of an inferiority complex must years before Claude Bernard was to have given rise to these complaints. prove the irritability of muscle itself by Possibly there was some unpleasant per­ means of his South American curare. sonal experience back of them of which We can then easily understand Dow­ we have no knowledge. He did have a ler’s surprise on finding muscular con­ controversy with Professor Le Conte of traction in bodies dead for several the University of Georgia over a ques­ hours and in which rigor mortis was tion of priority but in his reply on this beginning to appear. He noted that a subject there is no special rancor. Pos­ blow of the hand or a hatchet or a cane sibly if we could read through Dowler’s might cause a contraction of muscle thirty folio volumes of hand-written post-mortem. He cited the case of notes we might find reasons for his ani­ “W. O., an Englishman aged twenty­ mus. So far as Dunglison is concerned seven who had been dead for five hours. he may have had to bear vituperation His neck was stiff but his arms were meant for English and Continental strongly contractile. The motions were physiologists, particularly Bell and Ma­ slow and uniform, taking several sec­ gendie. onds to produce Hexion and relaxa­ Eet us now examine some of Dow­ tion.” In his paper he cited numerous ler’s physiological work. He himself similar incidents among those dead from various causes. The assumption of acid gas and aqueous vaporization from physiologists that the anterior columns the lungs, together with the incessant res­ of the spinal cord had control of all mo­ piration of the air, almost always much tion could not be true. Furthermore cooler than the body, must refrigerate the rigor mortis itself was not incompatible animal economy; that for all that has been proved to the contrary, oxydation and de- with the contractile function of muscle. oxydation, repair and waste, composition He was consequently led to the conclu­ and decomposition, inhalation and exha­ sion that this contractile force was in­ lation, are mutually compensating or equi­ herent in muscular tissue and in every ponderant in the regulation of animal portion of it, being wholly independ­ heat; and that while it may be plausibly ent of the brain, spinal cord and nerves. assumed that nearly the whole series of Thus in the bayous of Louisiana was organs and organic functions, especially promulgated the doctrine of the inde­ those of nutrition, contribute directly or pendent irritability of muscle. indirectly to the origin and distribution One of Dowler's best lines of work of animal heat, post-mortem calorification had to do with heat formation. To un­ might to some extent be accounted for by assuming that respiration is not a heating derstand his remarks one must remem­ but a refrigeratory process, which, ceasing ber that in 1850, at least among the with apparent death, ceases to liberate the practitioners of Louisiana, knowledge free caloric of the economy; whence the of metabolism was pretty limited and calorifacient function not being in many that even in better scientific circles the instances extinguished with respiration, production of animal heat was still re­ persists and for a long time accumulates ferred to the lungs. faster than it can be radiated into the sur­ On hundreds of human bodies Dr. rounding media. He has not however Dowler found that after death from been able to trace a necessary connection fever, cholera, yellow fever or sun antecedence or parallelism between post­ stroke there was a rise in temperature, mortem calorification and muscular con­ higher than any maximum during the tractility, the development, degree and duration of which may not coincide. course of the disease. From these ex­ perimental researches as well as from a Although Dowler can hardly be said rational interpretation of the respira­ to have understood heat control, his tory action of the lungs either in their ideas and theories on the point in ques­ natural, diseased or disorganized condi­ tion are sound and I suppose one would tions, he says that he was led to reject explain post-mortem heat, at least in the long-received theory which ascribes part, in much the same way today, only animal heat to the lungs as the sole I hope in considerably fewer words. heating apparatus of the animal econ­ As a result of his study on post­ omy. To him the lungs were organs for mortem temperatures Dowler was led cooling, not heating. His ideas of heat to examine the various tests for death. production and regulation are found in One of his most interesting essays is his the following passage. “Researches on the Natural History of Death.’’ Here is a most gruesome and He maintains that the chemical history of respiration may be interpreted either thrilling account of all the mistakes and as a refrigeratory or heat equalizing proc­ living entombments that had come to ess, and that while the absorption of oxy­ his attention. As a means of preventing gen during respiration may generate heat, any such mistakes in the future he pro­ on the other hand the parting of carbonic posed the thermometer as a means of testing death, asserting that it had su­ tardy dissections a most fallacious guide perior certainty over the stethoscope. in judging venous congestions, vascular His argument was that normally the turgescence and the like. The trans­ body keeps a constant temperature, in­ porting power of the capillaries might dependent of its surroundings. The have deposited the blood in new struc­ dead body responds to and is governed tures, sponging it out from structures by the outside physical caloric condi­ that had suffered during life from acute tions. The departure from the normal hyperemia and engorging those that could therefore be easily and quickly had been healthy, blanching the former determined by the thermometer. and reddening the latter. He was evi­ In 1849 Howler made an extensive dently instructing the gross pathologist report on “Researches Critical and Ex­ of his day and probably the remarks perimental on the Capillary Circula­ -were often in order. tion.” His introduction follows: The conclusion of his paper on the capillaries is very characteristic. The experiments I offer are all pre­ pared by the hand of nature. They were I make these extracts for the considera­ observed, not cutting by artificial meth­ tion of honest Aesculapians (there are a ods. They are not taken from the inferior few) who are willing to give every man animals but from man. This simplicity his due. If any one has ever before estab­ and naturalness (so unlike the barren lished the independent action of the capil­ tortures of vivisection, the most sensa­ lary circulation in the living or dead tional thing in the world, except to show human subject, if any one has applied this the natural history of agony) will no discovery, a fruitfid one, in explanation of doubt be the object of derision to those pathology and morbid anatomy, I am ig­ who prefer whatsoever is complex and norant of the fact. artificial. The chip was eternally on his shoul­ Dowler’s experiments were on per­ der. The “honest Aesculapians” quite sons recently dead from yellow fever, in obviously were those who agreed with which he found that blood flowed from him. But his contemporaries actually an opened vein freely for long periods. gave Dowler more credit than he de­ Since the heart had ceased to beat he served. Just why he was so touchy and argued that such a flow must have been fearful of his prestige we have not been caused by “capillary forces, against all able to discover. mechanical principles, against all chem­ Ehe great crusade of Dowler’s sci­ ical forces, against all ganglionic forces entific life, however, was against the and without any aid from the heart.” growing idea of central-nervous-system Thus he proved to his own satisfaction concentration, the conception that all that there was a post-mortem capillary peripheral processes were controlled by circulation. The exact nature of the nerve centers and mediated by the “capillary forces” never seems to have mechanisms of the reflex arc. This con­ aroused his interest. Had he suggested ception naturally following the work of some kind of contractility of the capil­ Bell, Magendie and Marshall Hall was lary -walls he might have been a real established toward the middle of the pioneer. last century. Dowler really understood He pointed out that his doctrine of the situation with considerable clear­ the capillary circulation surviving that ness. For ten years or more he opposed of the heart and large arteries rendered the growing doctrines on the nervous system in a great battle of his own. mental Researches Illustrative of the using both philosophy and experiment Functional Oneness, Unity and Diffu­ as his weapons. He was a fire-eater and sion of Nervous Action" presents other a die-hard and his indomitable spirit of his arguments. He attacks Dunglison teas really worthy of a better cause. of Virginia who in his textbook divided In his article dedicated to Dr. Cart­ the nerves into four divisions: (1) sen­ wright he says: sory, (2) motor, (3) excitor, and (4) motor of the spinal marrow. Just why The theoretical bias to centralization does a distinguished physiologist assert which prevails in modern physiology is not warranted, either by the experimental as fact that which no one has ever seen or the transcendental philosophy. Why or demonstated? should not the sensorium be diffused in­ He quotes widely from Carpenter, stead of beino- restricted to a single center Broussais, Bell, Robert Hook, Milne- or a mere point in the cranial, spinal or Edwards, Cuvier and Magendie. And abdominal cavity. An organ is better then a new argument conies to mind. adapted to its work than any ganglion. “If vivisections and traumatic lesions of the brain were insufficient to disprove It sounds almost as if he were a the doctrine that the brain is the sole “state rights" physiologist and had seat of all sensation, the fact that brain­ mixed his politics with his science. less monsters have enjoyed nutrition, In his paper entitled “Response to a secretory, calorific, respiratory, circula­ Professor" and dated 1850, he contin­ tory and sensational functions is alto­ ues his arguments for a diffuse senso­ gether too conclusive.” He then quotes rium in a more amusing vein. Since the from Dr. S. S. Purple, Editor of the blood has independent vitality it is rea­ New York Journal of Medicine, who in sonable to believe the same for the July, 1850, described a very perfect nervous system. Why should the brain specimen of brainless child who en­ be worth more, ounce for ounce, than joyed the full amount of sensibility to­ the peripheral nerves or peripheral gether with all the functions men­ ganglia? tioned, for two days and a half after Those who admit that a little portion birth. When irritated it uttered imper­ of the nervous system only is endowed fect cries. This and similar cases proved with a faculty to feel, might as well admit to the satisfaction of Dr. Purple and at once the broad principle, namely that Dr. Dowler the independence of the all parts feel. Their sensorial logic as it great vital functions from the large now stands, is no better than the ethical reasoning of the actress Mademoiselle nervous centers. ------, whose chastity being called in I have left to the last a discussion of question, defended herself by saying that the real experimental work on which although she had had a child it was a very Dr. Dowler’s views on the nervous sys­ little one. tem were based. The previous quota­ If one atom in the center or periphery tions might possibly have been more possesses the power of feeling, so may intelligible had these experiments been every atom for anything that may be con­ presented first. ceived to the contrary. The brain may be The quotations so far given might disorganized by disease and yet the sensa­ seem to indicate that Dowler was an ar­ tions persist. dent antivivisectionist. So far as mam­ A paper of 1851 entitled “Experi­ mals were concerned this may have been true. The anesthetic use of ether animal still directed its limbs to any had only recently been discovered and part touched with the knife. A metallic there is no reason to think that it was rod was next passed many times within yet in general use in experimental the spinal cord, completely destroying physiology. As a matter of fact we know the marrow beyond the hips. Both vol­ that Dalton first carried out animal ex­ untary and sensory motion remained, periments under anesthesia at Buffalo though their manifestations were in 1852. I he use of warm-blooded ani­ greatly reduced. The tail continued to mals in physiological experiments may twitch for an hour. well have been repulsive to Dowler but Many of the alligators were decapi­ certainly he had no such scruples when tated. One of these heads saw its ene­ it came to the use of the Louisiana alli­ mies, opened its mouth to bite at the gator. This large saurian attracted his proper time, and nictitated when a for­ attention as early as 1845. For a time he eign body approached the eyes. I he thought he was the first person ever to pupils responded to light. The head­ use this form but later it appeared, to less trunk manifested a still high degree his regret, that Le Conte of Georgia of sensation, intelligence and definite had also used alligators and actually well-directed muscular action. There had a priority of twenty days. Dowler’s was not a single unnecessary or con­ work was, however, much better known. vulsive action. The walking move­ The first alligator experiment of ments alone were abnormal. This con­ which I can find a complete record was dition continued for hours. one performed September 8, 1849. Dr. Another decapitated head jumped S. Powell was present as a witness. The from the table tvhen a knife was cord was sectioned in the cervical and brought near its eyes. It alighted on the lower thoracic regions of an animal floor six to eight feet away. The head­ four feet long. The protocol of this ex­ less trunk too showed such phenomena periment may be given pretty much in as are usually attributed to the brain, Dr. Dowler’s own words. namely sensation, volition, and intelli­ After the two cord sections, for two gent motion. It trembled, receded, hours the animal displayed complete rolled over, curved, placed its limbs ac­ intelligence, volition and voluntary curately on the exact spot necessary to motions in all divisions of the body. It remove an offending cause. It always saw, heard, felt, defended itself, showed used the limb best adapted to the pur­ anger, fear and even friendly attention pose. Cutting the head off close to the to its keeper, a black boy. The lateral neck did not stop the intelligent re­ muscles of the body, together with the actions. hind legs, were adapted so as to aid the From these descriptions and count­ forelegs in responding to various forms less others it is evident Dr. Dowler was of noxious stimuli. In fact the forelegs studying compound, coordinated re­ and hind legs mutually aided each flexes in a spinal-cord-controlled ani­ other, notwithstanding the intermedi­ mal. This animal was a large cold­ ate division of the cord. The animal di­ blooded form and the results were rected its legs to a point on the ventral correspondingly striking. Certainly no side where the knife was applied for American worker had ever before stud­ further dissection. The brain was notv ied these purposive reactions. No one removed and the cord pithed, but the in the whole world had yet noted or written of irradiation in the spinal But nature denied his conclusions cord, pleurisegmental innervation or before his very eyes. Irritation to the inhibition of the reciprocal muscles. front legs did influence the hind ones. The conception of a reflex arc, for the Instead of denials a truly great mind few who had the conception at all, was would have sought for harmonizing ex­ the two-line diagram still current in planations. That there was more con­ our elementary textbooks. cerned than a simple reflex arc he With this background, or rather ab­ abundantly proved. If he had only im­ sence of this background. Dr. Dowler agined a connection from arcs at one saw one of the finest examples of coor­ level to those at another level, all his dinated reflexes that could be devised. observations would have fallen into His descriptions are graphic, full of en­ order and he would have made for him­ thusiasm. and for the most part un­ self at one stroke an enduring name. doubtedly accurate. One does doubt if Failing to understand the existence the animals were in all cases success­ and nature of compound reflexes Dow­ fully pithed, for reflexes invariably dis­ ler drew a second erroneous conclusion appear when the cord is actually de­ and denied all specialization in the stroyed. The correlation between front nervous system. and hind legs after a mid-thoracic tran­ On the whole it may be safely con­ section also seems impossible. Move­ cluded that voluntary action is neither di­ ments, however, in each part would rectly communicated from nor regulated continue unabated and probably the by the brain or the cerebellum; that the enthusiastic observer only read too muscles in connection with the spinal much into them. marrow perform voluntary motions for So far so good. Dowler deserves full hours after having been separated from credit for having first studied reflex ac­ the brain; that these motions are not only entirely independent of the brain, but tion, exhibited in a most striking man­ may take place, though imperfectly, after ner in an unusual animal form. Beyond the destruction of the cord itself; that the this our admiration gives way to sur­ trunk as well as the brain, thinks, feels prise and wonder at the conclusions he and wills or displays psychological phe­ drew from his experiments. nomena; that the sensorium is not re­ His first conclusion was that his work stricted to a single spot, but is diffused; on alligators as well as a vast array made that the functions and structures of the on human subjects soon after death: nervous system constitute a unity alto­ gether inconsistent with the anatomical . . . clearly prove that the fundamental assumption of four distinct and separate principle of reflex action is erroneous. For sets of nerves, and a corresponding four­ according to this doctrine, even convulsive, fold set of functions; that there is no ana­ unmeaning or involuntary motions can­ tomical or other proof that one set of not be effected except by irritating some nerves transmits impressions to, and a sep­ portion of the particular arc of nerves dis­ arate set from, a sensorial spot somewhere tributed to the particular part or limb to in the brain, nor that the nerves them­ be removed. Thus galvanic or other irri­ selves are simple conductors and wholly tation of the spinal nerves distributed to insensible; that the two separate sets of the fore legs could not affect those sent to nerves usually assigned to what is called the hind legs, but must be reflected pre­ the excito-motory action of the spinal cisely from that portion of the cord cord are wholly hypothetical; that instead whence the nerves originate. of four traveling impressions, there is but one, the primary or sensiferous impres­ gives 1866 but most of the cyclopaedias sion, which is simultaneously cognized of the period give 1879. The latter date upon the periphery as well as in the cen­ is, however, doubtless correct for his tre, and not solely by an unknown spot in name appears in the city directory of the brain through the intermedium of a New Orleans for 1878. It was omitted secondarily transmitted impression, being in 1 879? intuitively felt where it really is; and that It may well be asked why we have sensuous cognition or sensation is imme­ spent so much time and effort on diate, intuitive, and not representative, nor the result of transmitted secondary the scientifically sad case of Bennett impressions, but a directly felt relation, al) Dowler. But the story is more than one initio, between an object and a sentient of distorted reasoning. It is a story of subject, and not one between a more sec­ great effort and of real accomplishment ondary representation, idea, or trans­ on the one side and an almost complete mitted impression of an object. negation 011 the other. Physiology as a whole has moved through the same I have not been able to find any arti­ mire of doubt as that which entombed cles by Dr. Dowler dated later than Bennett Dowler. We can get a consid­ 1856. At this time he still insisted on erably clearer view of our modern con­ his unorthodox views regarding the ception of nervous functions by follow­ nervous system. As already mentioned ing the mistakes of those who went the date of his death is in doubt. The before. Besides, it may be a good lesson Index of the Surgeon General’s Library in humility.

References 1. Miss Mary Louise Marshall, Librarian of Experimental Researches, Illustrative of the University of Tulane Medical the Functional Oneness, Unity and Dif­ School, writes that she can find no in­ fusion of Nervous Action. New Orleans, formation regarding Dr. Dowler. 1851, 34 pp. 2. Am. Med. Gaz., N. Y., 10:534, 1859. Tableaux of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 3. Dowler, B. Experimental Researches on New Orleans, 1854, 66 pp. the Post-mortem Contractility of Mus­ cles. N. Y., 1846, 39 pp. 4. Kelly and BurR/Kge. American Medical Researches, Critical and Experimental on Biographies. Balt., 1920, p. 327. the Capillary Circulation. New Orleans, 5. Mitchell, S. W. North American Med. & 1849, 34 PP- Chir. Rev., 11:105, 1858. A Response to a Professor and a Specula­ 6. Thompson, J. E. New Orleans Med. News tion on the Sensorium. New Orleans, & Hosp. Gaz., 4: No. xii, 1858. 1850, 16 pp. Researches on the Natural History of 7. For this information I am again grateful Death. New Orleans, 1850, 22 pp. to Miss Mary Louise Marshall.