300 ENDOCRINE GLANDS 



Keith and others, that the segmentary canals from which 

 are derived the canals of Wolff and Muller are of epiblastic 

 origin and not mesoblastic, as generally admitted. 



There is, however, in all this a certain amount of 

 imagination and however attractive the theories of Gaskell 

 may be, we cannot, nevertheless, make use of them as a 

 basis for a series of deductions. We must, therefore, 

 stop here and conclude: 



(a) That the true sympathetic appears to have from a 

 morphological as well as from a physiological point of 

 view much more general functions than the cranio pelvic 

 or parasympathetic system; 



(6) That sympathetic enervation is found in all the 

 organic processes of the body, particularly bodily heat 

 and cellular metabolism and, as says Max Verworn: "There 

 is no living matter which is not made up of cells and there is 

 no function of living matter which does not originate in 

 an element vital phenomenon of the cell." We can 

 say that the true sympathetic acts primarily on cells in 

 general; its place in vegetative life is most important. 

 Inversely, all changes in the sympathetic show themselves 

 by important modifications in cellular life, and in persistent 

 changes in the true sympathetic, organic metabolism will 

 be very much affected. 



C. MEDULLARY SACROCOCCYGEAL VEGETATIVE PORTION. 12 



From the vegetative nuclei of the sacro-coccygeal por- 

 tion of the cord arise vegetative fibres which, united as the 

 pelvic plexus, reach the ganglionic plexuses of the pelvis, 

 made up of the colo rectal plexus which sends motor 

 impulses to the large intestines (except the sphincters) 

 and the vesical plexus which sends motor impulses of 

 the detrusor. 



12 See Figs. 25, 27 and 29. 



