THE VISCERAL AFFERENT DIVISION. I55 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE VISCERAL AFFERENT DIVISION. 

 General Visceral Subdivision. 



The visceral afferent fibers bring impulses from the viscera to 

 the central nervous system. They are distributed to the mucous 

 surfaces in much the same way as the general cutaneous fibers 

 to the skin. In the absence of special knowledge as to their 

 appropriate stimuli it may be supposed that the fiber endings 

 are stimulated by pressure as are the general cutaneous endings. 

 Although it would be confusing to apply the term tactile to visceral 



R. dors/ 



Fig. 77. — A diagrammatic representation of the general visceral sensorj' com- 

 ponents in a trunk segment. 



impulses, it is probable that there is a close analogy between the 

 two. The difference between cutaneous and visceral sensory ap- 

 paratus is not in the form of the endings or the mode of stimula- 

 tion, but in the connections of the two kinds of fibers in the central 

 nervous system. 



The visceral afferent fibers form a component of each of the 



