Literary Notices. xix 



the peripheral end of the cervical sympathetic, and formed nerve end- 

 ings around the cells of the superior cervical ganglion, or they had 

 united directly with the sympathetic fibers. That the former had taken 

 place I infer from the fact that the regenerated nerve contained medul- 

 lated fibers larger than those proper to the sympathetic. 



"I conclude from the experiments that there is no essential difference 

 between the efferent ' visceral ' or ' involuntary ' nerve fibers, whether 

 they leave the central nervous system by way of the cranial nerves, by 

 way of the sacral nerves, or by way of the spinal nerves to the sympa- 

 thetic system. All of these fibers I take to be pre-ganglionic fibers. 

 And I think that any pre-ganghonic fiber is capable, in proper condi- 

 tions, of becoming connected with any nerve cell with which a pre- 

 ganghonic fiber is normally connected ; although apparently this con- 

 nection does not take place with equal readiness in all cases. On the 

 whole it appears to me that the functions exercised both by pre-gangli- 

 onic and by post-ganglionic fibers depend less upon physiological dif- 

 ferences than upon the connections which they have an opportunity of 

 makmg during the development of the nervous system and of the other 

 tissues of the body." 



Some earlier experiments upon the cervical sympathetic are re- 

 ported by Dr. Langley in the Journal of Physiology, Vol. XVIII, 1895, 

 p. 280 and Vol. XXII, 1897, p. 215. Among other interesting con- 

 clusions, it appears from these operations that during regeneration 

 sympathetic fibers sometimes effect connections other than the normal, 

 so that the functions of the regenerated fibers may differ in minor fea- 

 tures from those exhibited before the operation. 



These facts have a morphological, as well as a physiological, inter- 

 est. It seems to the reviewer very probable on purely morphological 

 grounds that the chief vagus nucleus (lobus vagi of fishes) contains the 

 cranial representative in all vertebrates of the lateral horn zone of the 

 spinal cord ; and the fact that the former can by experiment be func- 

 tionally substituted for the latter seems to bear out this idea. 



C. J. H. 



Degenerative Changes after Resection of tlie Vagus.^ 



A good historical review of the problems especially under investi- 

 gation precedes the account of the expermients undertaken. The vagus 



1 Zur Frage iiber Veranderungen im Nervensystetn und in inneren Organen 

 nach der Resection des N. vagus und des N. splanchnicus. By Dr. W. NiED- 

 zviETZKY. Bull. soc. imp. des Naiuralistes de Moscou, Annee 1896, No, 3, 1897, 



P-5I5. 



