THE FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 857 



jected to adverse criticism and they can not, therefore, be ac- 

 cepted unhesitatingly. 



Mironow* reports a number of interesting experiments made 

 upon goats. He found that artificial stimulation of sensory nerves 

 causes a diminution in the amount of secretion, thus confirming 

 the opinion, based upon observations upon the human being, 

 that in some way the central nervous system exerts an influence 

 on the mammary gland. When the mammary glands are com- 

 pletely isolated from their connections with the central nervous 

 system, stimulation of an afferent nerve no longer influences the 

 secretion. Mironow states also that, although section of the ex- 

 ternal spermatic on one side does not influence the secretion, sec- 

 tion of this nerve on both sides is followed by a marked diminu- 

 tion, and the same result is obtained when the gland on one side 

 is completely isolated from all nervous connections. The dimi- 

 nution of the secretion in these cases comes on very slowly, 

 after a number of days, so that the effect can not be attributed 

 to the removal of definite secretory fibers. Moreover, after ap- 

 parently complete separation of the gland from all its extrinsic 

 nerves, not only does the secretion, if it was previously present, 

 continue to form, although less in quantity, but in operations 

 of this kind upon pregnant animals the glands increase in size 

 during pregnancy and become functional after the act of par- 

 turition. This latter result confirms the older experiments of 

 Goltz, Rein, and others, according to which section of all the nerves 

 going to the uterus does not prevent the normal effect on lactation 

 after delivery. Regarding the question of the existence of a se- 

 cretory nerve, Baschf reports that extirpation of the celiac gan- 

 glion or section of the spermatic nerve does not prevent the 

 secretion, but causes the appearance of colostrum corpuscles. 



Experiments, therefore, as far as they have been carried, in- 

 dicate that the gland is under the regulating control of the cen- 

 tral nervous system, either through secretory or vasomotor fibers, 

 but that it is essentially an automatic organ. The bond of con- 

 nection between it and the uterus seems to be, in part if not entirely, 

 through the blood rather than through the nervous system. It 

 should be added that a definite connection between the nerve 

 fibers and the epithelial cells of the gland has been described. { 

 If this fact is corroborated it would amount to an histological 

 proof of the existence of special secretory fibers, but the physio- 

 logical evidence for the same fact is unsatisfactory. 



As was said in speaking of the histology of the gland, the se- 



* " Archives des sciences biologiques," St. Petersburg, 3, 353, 1894; 

 t Basch, "Ergebnisse der Physiologie," vol. ii, part i, 1903. 

 J Arnstein, " Anatomischer y\nzeiger," 10, 410, 1895. 



