CHAP. IX.] INFLUENCE OF NERVOUS SYSTEM ON INTES. SECRETION. 411 



Budge's statements received confirmation and extension from the 

 researches of Lander Brunton and Pye Smith 1 . 



" When all nervous connection between the intestine and the 

 higher nerve centres is cut off, by completely dividing the intestinal 

 nerves, a copious secretion occurs in the intestine. This is best 

 shewn by isolating three loops of intestine, by means of ligatures, 

 after they have been previously carefully emptied, as shewn in 

 fig. 24. 



FIG. 24. DIAGRAM SHEWING THE EFFECT OF SECTION OF NEKVES ON SECRETION FROM 

 THE INTESTINE. (Brunton.) 



The nerves going to the middle loop have been divided, and it is distended with the 

 fluid secreted. 



" The nerve-fibres going to the middle loop are then divided, and 

 the intestine is returned to the abdominal cavity. After four or five 

 hours, the animal is killed and the intestine is examined ; it is then 

 found that the loop, the nerves of which have been divided, is filled 

 with fluid, while the other loops which have been under precisely 

 the same circumstances, but the nerves of which have not been cut, 

 remain empty" (Moreau's experiment 2 ). 



" It is evident, then, that certain nerve-centres possess the power 

 of restraining the secretion from the intestine. These nerve-centres 

 have been shewn by Brunton and Pye-Smith to be the smaller or 

 inferior ganglia of the solar plexus, with the superior mesenteric 

 offset from them. When these ganglia are destroyed, the same 

 abundant secretion occurs in the intestine as when all the nerves are 

 cut, but if these ganglia be left intact the spinal cord may be 

 removed, the vagi and splanchnics cut, and the semilunar ganglia 

 excised without any excessive secretion occurring in the intestine 3 ." 



1 T. Lander Brunton and P. Pye-Smith, 'Intestinal Secretion and Movement,' 

 British Assoc. Reports, 1874, 1875, 1876. 



2 A. Moreau, 'De 1'influence de la section des nerfs sur la production de liquides 

 intestinaux,' Comptes Rendus, Vol. LXVI. (1868), p. 554. 



3 T. Lauder Brunton, A Text-book of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Materia 

 Medica. Third edition. London, Macmi'llan and Co. 1887 (p. 380). 



