200 NEKVOTJS SYSTEM. 



nutritive processes in delicate organs, like the eye, so as to 

 induce those changes which are called inflammatory. The 

 following observation, communicated by Dr. "W. H. Mason, 

 Professor of Physiology in the Medical Department of the 

 University of Buffalo, is very striking in this connection : 



The fifth pair of nerves was divided in a cat in the ordi- 

 nary way. By feeding the animal carefully with milk and 

 finely-chopped meat, the nutrition was maintained at a high 

 standard, and no inflammation of the eye occurred for about 

 four weeks. The supply of food was then diminished to 

 about the quantity it would be able to take without any spe- 

 cial care, when the eye became inflamed, and perforation of 

 the cornea and destruction of the organ followed. The ani- 

 mal was kept for about five months ; at the end of which 

 time, sensation on the affected side, which had been gradu- 

 ally improving, was completely restored. 1 



The explanation we have to offer of the consecutive in- 

 flammatory effects of section of the fifth with its communicat- 

 ing sympathetic filaments is the following : By dividing the 

 sympathetic, the eye and the mucous membranes of the nose, 

 mouth, and ear are rendered hypersemic, the temperature is 

 probably raised, and the processes of nutrition are exagger- 

 ated. This condition of the parts would seem to require a 

 full supply of nutritive material from the blood, in order to 

 maintain the condition of exaggerated nutrition ; but when 

 the blood is impoverished, probably as the result of defi- 

 ciency in the introduction of nutritive matter, from paraly- 



left side. A few days after, tie made experiments on the salivary secretion, and 

 finally took away a portion of the cephalo-rachidian fluid. " This last operation 

 made the animal sick and produced an inflammation of the nervous centres : 

 death occurred five days after. What was remarkable was that the mucous 

 membranes on the side of the face corresponding to the section of the sympa- 

 thetic became the seat of violent inflammation, from the moment that the animal 

 began to become enfeebled from the disease. There was abundant suppuration 

 from the nostril, the buccal mucous membrane, and the conjunctiva of the left 

 side, while on the opposite side the corresponding mucous membranes were in 

 the normal condition." 



1 Written communication from Prof. Mason. 



