94 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



by M. Robin, in a communication made by him to the Academie des 

 Sciences, of Paris, in June, 1847, that the ganglia of the great sympa- 

 thetic and of the cerebro-spinal nerves enclose the same kind of gan- 

 glionary globules, and of elementary tubes, but in different proportions ; 

 and hence he does not regard them as separate nervous systems. 



Although connected with the brain by the branches of the fifth and 

 sixth pairs of encephalic nerves, and with the spinal cord by the spinal 

 nerves, the sympathetic does not appear to be directly influenced by 

 either ; as the functions of the parts to which its ramifications are dis- 

 tributed continue for some time after both brain and spinal marrow 

 have been separated ; nay, as in the case of the heart and intestines, 

 after they have been removed from the body. Yet many discussions 

 have been indulged regarding the origin of this important part of the 

 nervous system ; . some assigning it to the brain, others to the spinal 

 marrow, whilst others again esteem it a distinct nerve, communicating 

 with the brain and spinal cord, but not originating from either; receiving, 

 according to M. Broussais, 1 by the cerebral nerves, the excitant influence, 

 and applying it to movements that are independent of the centre of 

 perception. In like manner, he affirms, when irritation predominates 

 in the viscera, it is conveyed by the ganglionic to the cerebral nerves, 

 which transmit it to the brain. Reil and Bichat, esteeming the sym- 

 pathetic to be the great nervous centre of involuntary functions, have 

 termed it the organic nervous system, in contradistinction to the animal 

 nervous system, which presides over the animal functions ; whilst Lob- 

 stein, 2 who has published an ex professo work on the subject, assigns 

 three functions to it. 1. To preside over nutrition, secretion, the action 

 of the heart, and the circulation of the blood ; 2. To maintain a com- 

 munication between different organs of the body; and 3. To be the 

 connecting medium between the brain and abdominal viscera. Remak, 3 

 who believes that the animal economy possesses two sensoriums, the 

 one in the cerebro-spinal axis, the other in the ganglionic system, 

 considers, that as in the cerebro-spinal system of nerves two orders of 

 phenomena occur, the perception of sensation, and the reaction or 

 reflection of volition ; so, in the organic nervous system, two analogous 

 actions take place, organic perception, or, as it has been called, Hal- 

 lerian irritability, and reaction or organic reflection, as shown by J. 

 MUller. 4 



From the result of his own researches, Dr. Carpenter 5 inferred, that 

 the sympathetic system does not exist in the lowest classes of animals 

 in a distinct form; that the nervous system of the invertebrata, taken 

 as a whole, bears no analogy to it, and that as the divisions of this 

 become more specialized, some appearance of a separate sympathetic 



1 A Treatise on Physiology applied to Pathology, translated by Drs. John Bell, and R. La 

 Roche, p. 257, Philad., 1832. 



a De Nervi Sympath. Human., &c., translated by Dr. Pancoast, Philadelphia, 1831. 



8 Ammon's Monatschrift, June, 1840; and Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journal, Jan., 1841, p. 

 249. 4 Elements of Physiology, by Baly, i. 736, Lond., 1838. 



6 Dissertation on the Physiological Inferences to be deduced from the Structure of the 

 Nervous System in the Invertebrated Classes of Animals, Edinb., 1839; reprinted in Dungli- 

 son's Med. Library, Philad., 1839: also, his Principles of Human Physiology, p. Ill, Lon- 

 don, 1842. 



