306 THE ADRENAL, GENERAL MOTOR, AND VAGAL SYSTEMS. 



the author had referred to the physiological mechanism lead- 

 ing to the production of the secretion, in the following words: 

 "Seeing that, unlike the case of the salivary secretion, food is 

 brought into the immediate neighborhood of the secreting cells, 

 it is exceedingly probable that a great deal of the secretion is 

 the result of the working of a local mechanism; and this view 

 is supported by the fact that when a mechanical stimulus is 

 applied to one spot of the gastric membrane the secretion is 

 limited to the neighborhood of that spot and is not excited 

 in distant parts. This local mechanism may be nervous in 

 nature, or the effect of the stimulus may perhaps be conveyed 

 directly from cell to cell, from the mouth of the gland to its 

 extreme base, without the intervention of any nervous ele- 

 ments; but the vascular changes at least would seem to imply the 

 presence of a nervous mechanism" After the lines previously 

 quoted and referring to those just given, Professor Foster says: 

 "There are no facts which afford satisfactory evidence that any 

 part of this arrangement of nerves supplies such a local nerv- 

 ous mechanism as was suggested above. The importance, 

 however, of such a local mechanism, whatever its nature, and 

 the subordinate value of any connection between the gastric mem- 

 brane and the central nervous system, is further shown by the 

 fact that a secretion of quite normal gastric juice will go on 

 after both vagi, or the nerves from the solar plexus going to 

 the stomach, have been divided, and, indeed, when all the 

 nervous connections of the stomach are so far as possible 

 severed." 



We have already emphasized the "subordinate value" re- 

 ferred to by showing that the oxidizing substance was, after 

 all, the functional principium energeticum, and that vascular 

 walls, nerves, ganglia, plexuses, etc., were accessories calculated 

 to bring this energizing principle and the cellular elements 

 together. In the cceliac-plexus extensions we have, as pre- 

 viously stated, "extrinsic vasoconstrictors/' but, if two-thirds 

 of the right vagus passes to the solar plexus, we must have a 

 duplication of motor functions in this location, and, as this 

 same nerve also passes on to the stomach, we have two kinds 

 of nerves distributed over the same structures in much the 

 same manner: an arrangement which extends to the Auer- 



