SYMPATHETIC NERVE. 



ray appear, as Robin states, to be (in general 

 at least) connected with broad fibres, while 

 the smaller cells are connected with narrow 

 fibres : this, however, does not appear to be 

 invariably the case. In the sympathetic gan- 

 glia there are sometimes seen connected with 

 narrow fibres cells as large as some of those 

 in the spinal ganglia, which are connected 

 with broad fibres. Moreover, as already 

 stated, there appear to be transitional sizes 

 between the larger and smaller variety of cor- 

 puscles. Kolliker also calls attention to the 

 fact that small ganglionic corpuscles occur in 

 other parts than in the sympathetic, as for 

 example those in the brain and spinal cord. It 

 would seem, then, that just as the finer 

 variety of tubular nerve-fibres cannot be re- 

 garded as characteristic of the sympathetic 

 system, so also the smaller variety of gan- 

 glionic corpuscles cannot be regarded as pe- 

 culiar to it either. 



It has been already stated, that the nerve- 

 fibres which compose the posterior root of 

 the spinal nerves in the raj', &o., have all, 

 according to Wagner, ganglionic corpuscles 

 developed upon them. He concludes from 

 this, that all sensory fibres are so constituted, 

 and that we have thus a good mark by which 

 a sensory nerve-fibre may be distinguished 

 from one possessed of motor properties. 

 To this view, however, it is objected by 

 Kolliker, that in the higher animals at least, 

 so far is it from being the case, that all the 

 fibres in the posterior roots of the spinal 

 nerves are provided with these structures, 

 that not one of the fibres proceeding from the 

 spinal cord enters the ganglion at all, the 

 nerve fibres connected with the ganglion be- 

 ing fibres which arise in it and run peripheri- 

 cally, not one of them passing in the opposite 

 direction towards the spinal cord. In ex- 

 amining the spinal ganglia of the mouse, after 

 addition, as Kolliker directs, of dilute solu- 

 tion of soda, I have often had no difficulty 

 in observing, that a great portion at least of 

 the fibres in the posterior root run past the 

 ganglion without forming any connection with 

 its corpuscles, and, moreover, that the fibres 

 of the ganglion appear to be directed periphe- 

 rically, as he states.* 



* A paper on multipolar ganglion-cells has been 

 published by Kcmak in the Monatsbericht der 

 Kb'nigl. Freuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu 

 Berlin fiir Januar., 1854, translated also in the 

 Edinburgh Monthly Medical Journal for April, 

 1854. He mentions that it was first made known 

 by Stilling's discovery of the so-called nerve-nuclei 

 in the pons Varolii of man and of the mammalia, 

 that the multipolar ganglion-cells discovered by 

 I'urkinje, Miiller, and himself (1837), in the cen- 

 tral organs of the vertebrata are connected with 

 motor nerve -libres. It has also been ascertained by 

 Wagner (1847), that each of the large multipolar 

 ganglion-cells of the electric lobes in the torpedo 

 becomes continuous by means of a process with the 

 axis cylinder of a fibre of the electric roots of the 

 n. vagus and trigeminus. The other branched pro- 

 cesses of these cells, distinguished by their granular 

 or striated appearance, serve the purpose, according 

 to Wagner, of connecting the cells with each other. 

 Remak could not, however, in an examination of 

 the Torpedo mannorata find such connections. On 



Connection between the Sympathetic and 

 Cercbro- spinal Systems. By the older ana- 

 treating the fresh brain with a solution of sublimate 

 or of double chromate of potash, the electric lobes 

 are easily separated into their constituents. All 

 the ganglion-cells are multipolar, surrounded by 

 delicate nucleate sheaths, and occupy the meshes of 

 a network formed of wide vessels with thick walls. 

 The processes destined for the formation of the 

 electric roots of the vagus and trigeminus collect 

 themselves at the base of the cerebral lobes into 

 strong bundles visible to the naked eye. The re- 

 maining branched processes, becoming surrounded 

 by a thin medullary sheath, form nerve-tubes with 

 dark borders, which pass into the medulla oblongata. 

 A connection of the cells with sensory fibres has 

 not as yet been demonstrated ; the sensory roots of 

 the vagus and trigeminus do not pass into the 

 electric lobes ; rather those of the former pass into 

 the medulla oblongata, those of the latter into a 

 gray appendix of the cerebellum (feuillet restiforme 

 of Lerres and Lavi), which in its structure, par- 

 ticularly in the size and form of its multipolar 

 ganglion-cells, agrees with the cerebellum, but not 

 with the electric lobes. 



He mentions that he has in his possession trans- 

 verse and longitudinal sections from the spinal 

 cords of man and of the ox, prepared by Stilling, 

 in which, as mentioned by the latter, the passage 

 of nerve-fibres belonging to the motory roots into 

 multipolar ganglion-cells of the anterior gray co- 

 lumn is observed. He finds also in the transverse 

 sections small bands of broad nerve-fibres with 

 dark borders, which seem to unite the anterior and 

 posterior roots. From the place of entrance of the 

 anterior roots into the anterior gray columns, or 

 commencing at the outer circumference of the latter, 

 they run as far as the posterior surface of the sub- 

 stantia gelatinosa, where the posterior roots enter 

 the latter. Here they are connected with the gan- 

 glion-cells, which send one of their processes to the 

 sensory roots, while the chief mass of the latter 

 radiates in broad thick bands through the gela- 

 tinous substance into the posterior gray columns as 

 far as the seat of the large multipolar ganglion- 

 cells. These circular bands of fibres may be pre- 

 sumed to indicate one of the paths on which in 

 decapitated animals the stimuli applied to sensory 

 nerves gives rise to reflex movements. It is re- 

 markable in this respect, that the long axis of the 

 largest ganglion-cells has the same direction as the 

 long axis of the spinal cord, and that besides the 

 lateral processes by whose means they are con- 

 nected with the fibres of the roots of the nerves, 

 they send out branched processes at both poles 

 towards the cephalic and caudal extremities of the 

 spinal cord. 



In the spinal ganglia the multipolar cells dis- 

 covered by Remak in 1837 in the ganglia are not 

 found. They consist rather, as he observed, in 

 fresh plagiostomes, without exception of the bipolar 

 cells simultaneously described by Robin and Wag- 

 ner (1846). These constitute, as shown by Leydig 

 in Chimaera monstrosa, nucleated swellings of the 

 axis cylinder, and are surrounded by a sheath con- 

 sisting of an epithelial layer, and of a firm mem- 

 brane, which is continuous with the sheath of the 

 nerve-tube. Bipolar cells may also be obtained 

 from the spinal ganglia of man and of the mam- 

 malia. They frequently appear unipolar when the 

 two processes leave the cell close to one another. 

 More frequently, however, as Kolliker observes, are 

 cells seen with a single process ; this probably di- 

 vides after a short course into two fibres. He finds 

 at least in the spinal ganglia of the mammalia (ox), 

 not unfrequently, divisions of nerve-tubes with 

 dark borders, which he misses in the plagiostomes. 



Of the ganglia, it is exclusively the sympathetic 

 which are made up of multipolar ganglion-cells. 

 The sheath of the latter consists, as in the spinal 

 ganglia, of a delicate layer of cells and of a strong 



