WORK UPON VISCERAL AND ALLIED NERVES. 71 



muscular coat of the uterus and vagina, or of the vas 

 deferens and vesiculse seminaHs (uterus mascuHnus) in the 

 rabbit. In the cat the same contraction results though not 

 to so marked an extent. The contraction involves both 

 muscular coats. In the doo; the contraction of the vas is 

 not well marked, the longitudinal contraction which is so 

 marked a feature in the rabbit is almost absent ; this is to 

 be associated with the fact that in the dog the longitudinal 

 muscular coat is poorly developed. Unilateral stimulation 

 of the nerves causes unilateral contraction of the vas, but 

 bilateral contraction of the vesicula seminalis — a contraction 

 which is strong enough to eject semen. These fibres occur 

 chiefly, in the rabbit, in the fourth lumbar and to a less ex- 

 tent in the third and fifth anterior lumbar roots. In the cat 

 they are found chiefly in the third and fourth with a few in 

 the second lumbar. 



Sherrington ^ observed contraction of the vas to occur 

 as the result of stimulation of the second and third lumbar 

 anterior roots in rhesus ; in the cat from the third and 

 fourth lumbar. The contraction had a long latent period 

 and was of a peristaltic nature, involving both muscular 

 coats. In the female contraction of the fibres in the round 

 lieament followed stimulation of the second and third 

 lumbar, or sometimes in the fourth lumbar in rhesus, and 

 of the third and fourth lumbar in the cat.^ In rhesus this 

 muscle is striated. Langley and Anderson also note con- 

 traction of the unstriated fibres in the meso-metrium on 

 stimulating the lumbar nerves. 



The fibres leave the corresponding nerves as white rami 

 and pass to the sympathetic chain, whence, as a rule, they 

 pass to the inferior mesenteric ganglion, and by the hypo- 

 gastric nerves to the pelvic plexus and their final distribu- 

 tion. The nerve cells on the course of these fibres are 

 situated either in the inferior mesenteric ganglion or in 

 ganglion cells placed further on their course in the hypo- 

 gastric nerves. This has been proved by the nicotine 

 method, and also by examination of the fibres after de- 



'^ Journ. of Fhys., vol. xiii., p. 6S5, 1892. 

 '^ Lot. cif., p. 684. 



