62 NEKVOUS SYSTEM. 



of the function of nerves of different properties that became 

 reunited after division. The experiments upon this point 

 by Gluge and Thiernesse were the most extended, and were 

 made upon the lingual branch of the fifth pair and the sub- 

 lingual. In from three to six weeks, the central end of the 

 sensitive nerve became firmly united with the peripheral end 

 of the motor nerve, but the physiological union was in no 

 case observed, except in one experiment in which the central 

 end of the sublingual was involved in the reunion. 1 This 

 conclusion was arrived at after a failure to obtain move- 

 ments in the tongue by stimulating the lingual branch of the 

 fifth above the point of union. 



It is evident that these experiments must have an impor- 

 tant bearing upon our theories concerning the mode of con- 

 duction of motor stimulus and sensitive impressions by the 

 different nerves, and they will be referred to again in con- 

 nection with that part of our subject. At present we can 

 only refer to the positive results obtained by Philipeaux and 

 Yulpian, which are in opposition to the negative experi- 

 ments of the observers cited above. These physiologists 

 succeeded in uniting, in dogs, the central end of the pneumo- 

 gastric with the peripheral end of the sublingual, and the 

 central end of the lingual branch of the fifth with the periph- 

 eral end of the sublingual, all of the nerves being divided, 

 and, in the case of the sublingual and the lingual branch of 

 the fifth, the central end of the motor nerve being torn out. 

 In these experiments, on exposing the nerves four or five 

 months after the first operation, irritation applied to the 

 sublingual below the point of union produced pain, and a 

 stimulus applied to the lingual branch of the fifth above the 

 point of union excited movements of the tongue, even after 

 dividing the nerve above and separating it from the centres, 

 so that it was impossible for any reflex movements to take 

 place. 8 These facts show that not only does union take 



1 GLUGE ET THIERNESSE, he. tit., p. 695. 



2 See the memoirs by PHILIPEAUX AND VULPIAN, already cited from the 



