SECTION OF SYMPATHETIC NERVES. 657 



The principal papers dealing with the duration of the paralytic effects are 

 quoted below. 1 It will be sufficient here to mention the comparatively few 

 instances in which paralysis of a long duration has been described, either after 

 section of the sympathetic or removal of the superior cervical ganglion. 

 Bernard in one case, in a dog, found that the paralytic effects on the iris, 

 eyelids, and vessels of the ear, were still intense one and a half years after 

 extirpation of the superior cervical ganglion. Schiff observed one case in a 

 dog, in which there was hardly any decrease in intensity in the hyperemia of 

 the ear for two years after section of the cervical sympathetic. Budge stated 

 that, in rabbits, section of the cervical sympathetic caused a decrease in the 

 size of the pupil, lasting a year after the operation. And Pye-Smith found 

 that the paralytic effects lasted indefinitely in rabbits and cats ; in one case, 

 indeed, in a rabbit, after section of the cervical sympathetic and of the spinal 

 auricular nerves, the paralytic effects remained maximal or nearly maximal for 

 more than five years. 



Observations have also been made upon the duration of paralytic 

 effects on the vessels of the hind-foot in dogs. Section of the sciatic 

 causes a dilatation of arteries, and a rise of temperature in the foot ; 

 according to Goltz, 2 the temperature begins to fall in four or five days, 

 and becomes in three or four weeks the same as that on the intact 

 side. 



The recovery of tone in this case may fairly be referred to vaso- 

 motor fibres passing to the foot by the crural nerve, for Lewaschew 3 

 found that, as a rule, section of the crural nerve caused a rise of tem- 

 perature of the foot, and that stimulation of the peripheral end caused a 

 fall of temperature. Spallitta and Consiglio state that on removal of the 

 lumbo-sacral sympathetic chain on one side, the rise of temperature in 

 the foot, though diminishing somewhat, remains considerable for an 

 indefinite period. Their observations, however, do not seem to have 

 extended over a greater period than three months. 



It appears certain that unstriated muscle, when severed from the 

 central nervous system, recovers some degree of tone, and it is 

 reasonable to suppose that inherent vitality and responsiveness to 

 stimuli vary in different tissues. Schiff showed that after section of 

 all the nerves to the ear of the rabbit, the arteries still retained their 

 irritability and contractibility, and that irregular automatic contractions 

 and dilatations of the arteries still occurred. There can be little doubt, 



1 Reid, Ediu. Med. Journ., 1839 (reprinted in "Physiological, Pathological, and 

 Anatomical Researches," Edinburgh, 1848, p. 291). In this an account of earlier papers 

 will be found. Bernard, " Recherches expei'imentales sur le grand sympathetique, etc," 

 Paris, 1845 (see also "Lecons sur la systeme nerveux," Paris, 1858, tome ii.). Schiff, 

 " Lecons sur la physiol. de la digestion," Turin, 1867, p. 233 et scq. In this Schiff gives a 

 summary of his views and of his experiments from 1854 to 1867. (See "Recueil des 

 memoires physiologiques," de M. SchifF, Lausanne, 1894, tome i.) Budge, " Ueber die 

 Bewegung des Iris," Braunschweig, 1855. Van der Beke Callenfels, Ztschr. f. rat. Med., 

 1855, S. 157. (Full abstracts of the observations made in the immediately preceding years 

 are given in this paper.) J. Ogle, Med.-Chir. Trans., London, 1858, vol. xli. (observations 

 on man). W. Ogle, ibid., London, 1869, vol. Hi. (observations on man and animals). 

 Pye-Smith, Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1887, vol. viii. p. 25. Paneth, 

 Centralbl.f. Physiol, Leipzig u. Wien, 1887, S. 272. 



2 Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1874, Bd. ix. S. 174. Schilf, however, states that if 

 certain precautions be taken, the foot on the cut side is permanently of a somewhat higher 

 temperature than that of the opposite side. 



3 Ibid., 1882, Bd. xxviii. S. 431. Cf. also Spallitta et Consiglio, Arch. ital. de biol., 

 Turin, 1897, tome xxviii. p. 257. Dastre and Morat ("Systeme nerveux vaso-moteur," 

 Paris, 1884, p. 262) observed pallor of the skin of the toes on stimulating the peripheral 

 end of the crural nerve in doss. 



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