Eighth Pair of Nerves. 69 



Mr. B. should not have had recourse to this mode of making 

 the experiment, as he could not then have been so entirely 

 deceived by the appearances of the parsley, which certainly 

 aflbrd the strongest possible evidence, that digestion did not 

 go on after the division of the nerves. Of this, Mr. B. might 

 also have convinced himself by consulting the chapter on the 

 process of digestion, in Dr. Wilson Philip's Essay on the 

 Vital Functions, where that author observes, that, " when 

 rabbits have fasted sixteen or eighteen hours, the whole food 

 found in the cardiac portion, which is in small quantity com- 

 pared to what is found in it immediately after a full meal, 

 seems frequently to be all nearly in the same state with that 

 next its surface, the gastric juice having pervaded and acted 

 upon the whole, and it is consequently apparently fitted to be 

 sent to the pyloric end." p. 162. 



In the five remaining experiments, the rabbits did not survive 

 the operation more than from two to nine hours, and in none 

 of them either, did the food shew any marks of digestion. 

 The alteration of colour being alone observed. 



In the 8th experiment, which was performed on a puppy dog, 

 the eighth pair of nerves, if is said, were divided. The animal lapped 

 milk several times after the operation, and the stomach regularly 

 rejected all that was taken. At length, however, the account 

 goes on to state, that the stomach became quiet, and retained 

 some milk. The animal died some hours afterwards. On exa- 

 mination, the stomach was entirely free from redness, and con- 

 tained merely a little fluid resembling whey. " Hence it appears," 

 says the author, " that the milk taken subsequently to the last 

 vomiting had been regularly separated by the digestive process, 

 and the curd dissolved and passed away." Now I am inclined 

 to be sceptical with regard to the last milk having been retained 

 on the stomach ; for it does not appear that the dog was watched 

 through the night, during which period a fit of vomiting, in all 

 probability, came on, and the milk was rejected. But, even 

 adjoutting that this was not the case, the author should certainly 

 have satisfied himself, after death, that the eighth pair of nerves 

 were divided. The sympathetic nerves are near, and have occa- 



