381 



Nachdruck verboten. 



Tlie ßole of the Vagi in tlie Deyelopment of the 

 Sympathetic Nerrons System i). 



By Albert Kuntz. 



With 4 Figures. 



Introduction. 



Our knowledge concerning the developmental relation of the vagus 

 nerves to the sympathetic nervous system has hitherto been very limited. 

 The development of those sympathetic plexuses which receive branches 

 directly from the vagus trunks has been largely neglected. 



The older workers generally gave little attention to the peripheral 

 sympathetic plexuses. Onodi ('86), though he traced the origin of the 

 ganglia of the sympathetic trunks and prevertebral plexuses to the 

 spinal ganglia, could not derive the peripheral sympathetic plexuses 

 from the same source because he found no cellular connections be- 

 tween them and the ganglia of the sympathetic trunks. He believed 

 it necessary, therefore, to cling to the doctrine of Remak ('47) with 

 regard to the peripheral sympathetic plexuses and derive their ganglia 

 from the mesoderm. W. His jr. traced the origin of the peripheral 

 sympathetic plexuses, including the plexuses in the walls of the digestive 

 tube and the sympathetic components related to the vagus nerves, to 

 cellswarms which migrate peripherally from the anlagen of the ganglia 

 of the sympathetic trunks. 



Later writers have generally assumed that the plexuses in the 

 walls of the digestive tube and the cardiac plexus have their origin 

 in the ganglia of the sympathetic trunks, but the course of their 

 development does not seem to be made clear. The literature bearing 

 on this point is conspicuously meager. 



KoHN ('07), who is an avowed advocate of the theory of local 

 differentiation and the multicellular nature of nerve fibers, finds it 

 impossible to trace the origin of all peripheral sympathetic plexuses 



1) From the Laboratories of Animal Biology of the State University 

 of Iowa, Gilbert L. Houser, Director. 



