Le Mouvement Alterné (Systole-Diastole) du Cortex/Matière Grise - Une Réalité

The Brain, volume I, editor's notes, note I, pp. 645-700, extraits:

The Motion of the Brain - Reality of this motion                                                                                   

“On this subject he (note de A.C.: Sir Emanuel Swedenborg) expresses himself above in no. 59 as follows: “Without this knowledge we are not able to percieve anything in the anatomy of the brain; [...] Without  a knowledge of the  motion of the brain we inquire in vain for the principles, the causes,  and origins of the motions of the senses, and also for those of the remaining effects and phenomena in the body; for the universal body, with its powers, forces, and actions, lives entirely or chiefly under the motion or the  aupices of the brain... [...] Without this knowledge also we should know nothing whatever in psychology; we should not know what the soul is, what the mind, the understanding, the will, and what the exercices of each are; for in order that the soul may live corporeally or by a body, the brain or everything organized must be moved or animated in alternate periods; but in order that the soul may live spiritually or in its spirit, the brain, or that which is an organism must be quiescent.“

“If [...] we turn to the modern text-books on physiology for further light on this subject, we look in vain for any notice of the motion of the brain in the following works: [...]“            

“If suprised at this result we inquire for the reason, why in our standard works on physiology there is absolutely no mention made of the motion of the brain, which up to Swedenborg's time had been acknowledged by most of the leading anatomists and physiologists - viz. Realdo Colombo, Bartholin, Ridley, Vieussens, Wepfer, Baglivi, Pacchioni, Fantoni, Bellini - we obtain the following answers from the Faculty.“ [...]

“The reason, therfore, why the subject of the motion of the brain is excluded from the leading text-books on physiology in England and America seemes to be that the authors admit indeed a motion of the brain in infants, and in cases where adult persons have lost a portion of the cranial substance; while in the normal state of adults, they believe this motion to be impossible, and therfore of too little practical importance to be treated in text-books.”                                                           

“This theory of a want of motion in the normal brain of adults, as we have seen, rests mostly on the experiments of Bourgougnon and Donders.“ [...]

“Vaillard in summing up these cases says, “The reality of the motion of the brain in the ossified cranium [ i.e. in the normal adult brain ] is henceforth established, and the following is a fundamental fact belonging definitely to science: namely, that this motion takes place through the medium of the cerebro-spinal fluid, which is capable of displacement in exactly the same way as the changes in the volume of the hand, or of any other part of the body, are produced in an apparatus fille with water.“

“The existence of the motion of the brain is hence not only a rational, but also a scientific fact.“

“Between the time when Donders in 1850 and 1851 published the results of his investigation into the movements of the brain, and the rise of the graphic method of physiology which was successfuly applied to the registration of the motion of the brain in 1875, a kind of obscuration coupled with indifference seems to have come over the physiologists which induced them to deny the existence of all motion in a normally-constituted brain, and to exclude the consideration of this important subject altogether from their text-books. In vain physiologists like Richet (see above, p. 646) protested against the arguments by which science had fortified itself in this negative position; he preached to deaf ears, until at last the respiring brain itself declared the reality of its motion by those tracings which it furnished by means of the graphic method.“ [...] 

“19. Another factor which stimulated them in their research was a discovery made by Piégu (60) as far back as 1846, [...]. Piégu showed by his experiments that movements analogous to those of the brain exists in the arms and legs; in short, in every part of the body.“

Like most new discoveries destined to interfere with the commonly received scientific ideas, Pégu's discovery remainded unnoticed for nealry thirty years, when at  last, as Vaillard informs us, the Doctor took up the subject again in the “Journal de l'Anatomie of 1872“, insisting that the movements of the brain, far from constituing a phenomen peculiar to that organ, are but the expression of a law common to the whole body.“

“20. The fact discovered by Piégu in 1846 was well known to Swedenborg, as appears from the following passage in his “Regnum Animale“, vol. ii., published in 1744: [...]“ .

The Motion of the Brain - Extent of the Motion of the Brain 

“24: That the motion of the brain is not limited to the cerebrum, but extends to the cerebellum, the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord, Swedenborg declares in the following passage: “By the observation made by the most celebrated men, we have been convinced that the cerebrum is sirred to its very base by alternate motions; and if such is the case with the cerebrum, it follows of necessity that such must also be the case with the cerebellum, the medulla oblongata, and the spinal marrow; for the connection of the parts, the continuation of membranes, the consociation of fibres, and the passage of arteires among them, is such that it is impossible for one to be moved without the other“ (Part i. no. 42).“

The Motion of the Brain - Origin of the Motion of the Brain

“[...] ..., and hence also Swedenborg's theory on the subject, which in our estimation is the only one that meets successfully the difficulties and contradictions with which all other theories respecting the origin of the motion of the brain beset.“

“30. According to the dynamic or autoctratic theory of the motion of the brain, as stated by Swedenborg, the origin of the motion of that organ is contained in its own bosom, and therefore is independant of the arterial and venous circulation of the body, and of the circulation of the cerebo-spinal liquid.“

The Motion of the Brain - “Conclusion“

“34. By our review, we may fairly say, of the entire literature on the motion of the brain and its collateral issues, wehave proved in the first place the reality of that motion. [...] ; so that at last the dynamic theory of Swedenborg alone remains, having stood the test of all known facts in connection with the brain, and combining into one grand rational whole all these facts, from the time of Swedenborg in 1740 to the most recent facts of our own times.“

“The dynamic theory of the motion of the brain in Swedenborg's own words is as follows: “It is the cortical or grey substance which is expanded and constricted, or from which the cerebrum has its animatory motion; for its parts are globules of a roundisch shape approaching the oval: they are engirded by a thin or most delicate meninx, or membrane; they are distinctly separated from those parts to which they are related, and which are in theire confines; so that each single globule is movable, or capable of expansion and compression, within its own space. [...] We must not look for the origin of the motion of the brain anywhere else than in these its organic parts; for only in these does the brain begin to be a brain; [...] Their number aso is so great that while each single particle expands itself, the whole mass of the brain is expanded from its bottom and from all its depths. Their connection also is such, that all are able to have their own systole and diastole in the brain in conjunction, or some separately;“"

“35. [...] Of Dorigny, who wrote on the motion of the brain in 1809, [...], Althann says: “Dorigny rose against the explanation of the motion of the brain by mechanical means,    [...] .