The Brain

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

At a recent sitting of the French Academy of Sciences, it Was attempted to demonstrate by a learned academician, from various careful experiments on the brains of animals, that the motive power of the respiratory mechanism, the vital point of the nervous system, is not bigger than the size of a pin's head. In a paper in the " Monthly Journal of Medical Science," for March, 1853, Dr. Alex. Smith, oi her Majesty's 32nd regiment, shows that the probable cause of the epidemic cho-lic, which afflicted the troops on the Island of Ceylon, during the past year, was the lead, which could be distinctly traced in the arrack and sugar which formed part of the supplies. Dr. Spurgin, in his " Six Lectures on Mate-ria Medica, and its relation to the Animal Economy," suggests that a most frequent application of therapeutical agents, in the gaseous form, by inhalation, in the way that we use chloroform, might be made available in very many diseases.

It’s Time to Stand Up for Science

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.

I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.

If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.

Thank you,

David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American