198 PHYSIOLOGY CHAP. 



The action of the sympathetic system is less well established. 

 Some deny that it has any effect on the movements of the stomach 

 ( Joh. Miiller, Oehl, Longet) ; others credit it with a motor influence 

 (Budge, Bonders, Brinton, Schiff, Adrian, Goltz, Eusso-Giliberti) ; 

 others, again, recognise in the splanchnics and the sympathetic 

 fibres from the caeliac plexus in general, inhibitory or moderator 

 nerves of the gastric motions (van Braam-Houckgeest, Morat, 

 Convers). 



The numerous researches of Openchowski and his pupils, v. 

 Rosen, v. Knaut, Dobbert, Hlasko, Fransen, on rabbits, cats, and 

 dogs, which are collected in two publications (1889), led to a 

 remarkable consensus of results in regard to the central and 

 peripheral nervous mechanisms that regulate and co-ordinate the 

 movements of the stomach. In order to facilitate this point, Fig. 

 69 reproduces Openchowski's schema. 



In the stomach of new-born rabbits, treated with gold chloride, 

 Openchowski discovered ganglionic nodules which are distinct in 

 structure and position from those of Auerbach's plexus, and 

 resemble Eemak's and Bidder's ganglia in the heart. They are 

 scattered in the serous coat, and are in relation with the fibres of 

 the vagus and the sympathetic system, which run to the stomach. 

 Eleven such groups can be distinguished in the cardia, and seven 

 in the pylorus (G G of figure). In the walls of the stomach they 

 are fewer, and consist of a smaller number of cells. He believes 

 that the movements of the stomach which persist after its separa- 

 tion from the cerebrospinal centres depend on these ganglia, to 

 which he assigns an automatic function. This part of Open- 

 chowski's theory calls for direct experimental confirmation. 



According to the Dorpat physiologist, the cerebrospinal centres 

 on which the regulation of the movements of the stomach 

 depends, are situated in the posterior corpora quadrigemina, in the 

 nucleus of the corpora striata, the cortex of the sulcus cruciatus, 

 the olivary bodies, and the grey matter of the upper tract of the 

 spinal cord. The efferent paths run in the vagi, the splanchnics, 

 the spinal chain of the sympathetic, and the caeliac plexus. The 

 afferent paths leading directly or indirectly to these centres have 

 not been exactly determined, but must, as we shall see, be very 

 numerous. 



Excitation of the median part of the sulcus cruciatus of 

 the cerebral cortex causes a slight dilatation of the cardia 

 associated with the contraction of the pylorus. It therefore 

 contains two centres which have an antagonistic action, probably 

 because they produce the contraction of the longitudinal muscle 

 fibres, which predominate at the cardiac orifice, and of the circular 

 fibres, which constitute the pyloric sphincter. The efferent paths 

 for these two centres run exclusively with the vagus nerves. 



The caudate and lenticular nuclei contain more important 



