THE INFLUENCE OF THE CEREBRAL CORTEX ON GASTRO-INTESTINAL MOVEMENTS

Abstract

After the publication of Cushing's¹ address on peptic ulcers and the interbrain and Keller's² paper on ulceration of the digestive tract following experimental lesions of the hypothalamus, it seemed desirable to study the effects of hypothalamic lesions on the gastro-intestinal tract of monkeys. Since monkeys had not previously been used in such experiments it was essential that a careful study be made of their gastro-intestinal tracts under laboratory conditions as a basis for interpreting changes that might follow hypothalamic lesions. For this purpose complete autopsies were performed on all animals (eighty in number) that died or were killed during the year 1932-1933 (at the Laboratory of Physiology at Yale University School of Medicine),³ attention being directed particularly to the intestine. In the course of these autopsies, intussusception with intestinal obstruction was found to be the cause of death in three otherwise healthy animals; all three intussusceptions occurred in