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Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 - Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. by Various
page 58 of 880 (06%)
But decidedly the most interesting detail about the anæsthesia is that
shown by the extreme liability of the eye to stop reflexly on the red
or the green light, in the second experiment with the pendulum.
Suppose the eye to be moving from _P_ to _P'_ (Fig. 5); the
anæsthesia, although beginning later than the movement, is present
when the eye reaches _O_, while it is between _O_ and _N_, that is,
during the anæsthetic moment, that the eye is reflexly caught and held
by the light. This proves again that the anæsthesia is not retinal,
but it proves very much more; namely, that _the retinal stimulation is
transmitted to those lower centers which mediate reflex movements, at
the very instant during which it is cut off from the higher, conscious
centers_. The great frequency with which the eye would stop midway in
its movements, both in the second pendulum-experiment and in the
repetition of Dodge's perimeter-test, was very annoying at the time,
and the observation cannot be questioned. The fact of the habitual
reflex regulation of voluntary movements is otherwise undisputed.
Exner[24] mentions a variety of similar instances. Also, with the
moving dumb-bell, as has been mentioned, the eye having begun a
voluntary sweep would often be caught by the moving image and carried
on thereafter reflexly with the pendulum. These observations hang
together, and prove a connection between the retina and the reflex
centers even while that between the retina and the conscious centers
is cut off.

[24] Exner, Sigmund, 'Entwurf zu einer physiologischen
Erklärung der psychischen Erscheinungen,' Leipzig und Wien,
1894, S. 124-129.

But shall we suppose that the 'connection' between the retina and the
conscious centers is cut off during the central anæsthesia? All that
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