MEMOIRS. 



Contributions to tlieKi^K'xiQswofthe Sympathetic Ganglia 

 of the Bladder in their Rp:lation to the Vascular 

 System. By Francis Darwin. (With Plates V and VI.) 



The work which forms the basis of this paper was under- 

 taken at the laboratory of the Brown Institution, at the 

 suggestion and under the supervision of Dr. Klein ; and it is 

 a pleasure to me to express my great obligation to him for 

 the kind manner in Avhich he has in every way aided me. 



In Cohnheini's latest work on Inflammation (' New Re- 

 searches on Inflammation/ by Dr. Julius Cohnheim, Berlin, 

 1873) he describes the dilatation which may be produced in 

 the vessels of the frog's tongue by the direct irritation of that 

 organ. And in his discussion as to the manner in which the 

 phenomena are produced, he states his opinion that there is 

 no reflex mechanism effected by peripheral ganglion cells, 

 " for, in the first place, such ganglia are not demonstrated as 

 yet, and, in the second place, no case is known in which 

 reflex action takes place independently of the central nervous 

 system." It is with the first of these reasons only that we 

 are at present concerned. It is undoubtedly true that no such 

 ganglia have been as yet pointed out in the frog's tongue, but 

 in other organs they have been demonstrated. Dr. Lionel 

 Beale, in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 1863, has 

 described and figured cells of this nature ; fig. 46, plate xl, 

 represents " a portion of the coat of a branch of the iliac 

 artery of the frog ; upon the surface external to the muscular 

 fibres are seen some ganglion cells in process of development 

 with their fibres, which ramify upon the muscular coat." Dr. 

 Beale also says, in the ' Monthly Microscopical Journal' for 

 August, 1872, p. 57, " In the bladder of the frog I have been 

 able to follow fine nerve-fibres from the ganglia both to 

 arteries and capillary vessels." In another place Dr. Beale 

 says that similar fibres may be traced in small mammals, 



VOL. XIV. H 



