Cortical or Reflex Control of Respiration dnring Muscular Work?

Summary. In experiments with voluntary and electrically induced work on a normal subject and on a patient (tabes dorsalis) in whom all the ordinary kinesthetic sensations were completely extinguished, the pulmonary ventilation increased during both kinds of work in the normal way i.e. corresponding to the oxygen consumption, in spite of the fact, that the cortical innervation during the electrically induced work was substituted by the apparatus for electrical stimulation. Prom these experiments it is concluded, that the nervous impulses which increase the excitability of the respiratory centre, thus causing the rise in the ventilation during work, are not of cortical origin, but most probably must be brought about reflexly from the working muscles. The experiments with the patient suffering from tabes dorsalis show further, that the reflex impulses must be carried to the centre through nerve paths outside the posterior fascicles, which are known to be destroyed in this disease.