5fi THE WORK OF THE DIGESTIVE GLANDS. 



the vagus nerve and the gastric glands will finally elucidate the 

 problem. 



We cannot leave this subject without expressing regret that physio- 

 logists have grown accustomed to look upon the gastric glands as being 

 independent of nervous influences, and, in consequence, continue to disre- 

 gard the results just given, although they have been published for more 

 than seven years, not only in the Russian but also in the foreign litera- 

 ture of our subject. Some of the authors speak of the continuance of 

 gastric secretion after severance of the vagi, but pay no regard to the 

 peculiar alterations of the secretion, which is the special point in ques- 

 tion. In the case of many other organs we are able to divide their 

 nerves without stopping their particular forms of activity, but we do 

 not conclude therefrom that these organs have no innervation. Other 

 authors adhere rigidly to the traditional formula? of the acute experi- 

 ment, taking 110 precautions against reflex inhibition. Only a few 

 (Axenfeld, Contejean, Schmeyer) have obtained more or less positive 

 results with dogs and other animals, such as birds and frogs. We con- 

 fidently believe that every single repetition of our experiment, if only 

 the conditions we have given be observed, will yield the selfsame results 

 in the hands of every investigator, and will no longer leave any room for 

 doubt in the existence of a secretory innervation to the glands of the 

 stomach. 



The same difficulties which we had to encounter with regard to the 

 innervation of the gastric glands were also met with in the case of the 

 pancreas. To illustrate these difficulties, I need only give here the 

 following expressive remarks taken from the classic work of Heiden- 

 hain upon the pancreas : " Indeed, every observer who has occupied 

 himself for any length of time with investigating the functions of the 

 pancreas will leave this field with a feeling of dissatisfaction in conse- 

 quence of the extremely large number of fruitless experiments he is 

 obliged to deduct from the total number of his investigations ; for not 

 even the greatest care, nor the ripest experience in the making of 

 pancreatic fistula?, will be able to overcome the incomprehensible 

 sensitiveness of the organ, which only too often annuls its function 

 for a length of time after completion of the operation, a function which 

 it does not resume even under the influence of the most favourable secre- 

 tory conditions. A degree of uncertainty, therefore, always clings to the 

 results of such observations, which is not set aside even by a numerous 

 repetition of the single experiments. I must openly declare that I have 

 never undertaken a series of experiments which was so lavish in the 

 sacrifice of dogs and so poor in corresponding results." * 



* Pfliiger's ArrJiir., Bd. x. 1875, p. R90. 



