SECT. II.] CONSENSUS OF THE NERVES. 433 



from a titillation of the fauces^ or after taking an emetic ; the 

 tremors and convulsions in St. Vitus^s dance, and in a paroxysm 

 of intermittent fever, &c. Those actions, however, which the 

 soul directs or limits by its own power, even although the 

 sensorium commune has its share in producing them, are never- 

 theless called animal, and not automatic, and concerning them 

 we treat in the next chapter. 



SECTION II. DOES EVERY CONSENSUS OF THE NERVES TAKE 



PLACE THROUGH THE SENSORIUM COMMUNE ONLY? 



Since the nerves depend so much on each other in performing 

 their functions, so that one is required to regulate the action of 

 another, and one to come to the help of another as it were, 

 it is manifest how necessary it is that there should be a consensus 

 of the nerves, and how necessary is that part of the nervous 

 system in which this consensus takes place ; for if this part be 

 destroyed, presently all those actions to the production of which 

 the consensus of many nerves is required necessarily cease. I 

 will not waste time in narrating examples of consensus of the 

 nerves, for the latter is abundantly treated of in physiology and 

 pathology, and examples of it are ex professo related by those 

 highly distinguished men Whytt^ and Tissot.^ I will, however, 

 direct consideration to one question, namely, whether the nerves 

 communicate with each other in the sensorium commune only, 

 or whether there be other localities besides the sensorium com- 

 mune, in which the consensus of at least some nerves takes 

 place? Willis taught, that the consensus took place not only 

 through the brain, but through the connections and com- 

 municating branches of the nerves, which we perceive to be 

 pretty numerous in their course ; Vieussens ascribed the con- 

 sensus of the nerves to both their ganglia and anastomoses, 

 and Boerhaave, Bergen, Vater, Buchner, &c., were also of a 

 similar opinion, as well as the celebrated Meckel in his essays, 

 ' De Nervo Quinti Paris,' and ' de Nervis Faciei.' Gasser 

 followed him -^ and lastly, Camper also explained the consensus 

 of the nerves by their communicating branches. Eminent 



1 On Diseases of the Nerves. See all his practical works in German. 



» Von Nerven, 2ten Bandes 2ter Theil, lOtes Kapit. 



^ In the dissertation of George Egger, ' De Consensu Nervorum.' Viennae, 1766, 



38 



