GANGLION. 



373 



is possessed by those bodies in common with 

 the brain and spinal chord, is very considerable, 

 constituting apparently the largest, and cer- 

 tainly the most essential part of the ganglion. 

 It is so intimately connected with the fibres 

 that these latter appear as if they were incrusted, 

 being surrounded in every direction by this 

 greyish matter; but although this intimate 

 intermixture is very evident, no fibrils can be 

 perceived actually terminating in or arising 

 from the grey matter. A section of one of the 

 sympathetic ganglia, the first cervical for ex- 

 ample, displays this incrustation of the fibres 

 and the interposition between them of rounded 

 masses of the grey matter ; but the Gasserian 

 is in many respects the most favourable for ex- 

 amination. 



Much difference of opinion exists concerning 

 the true nature of this substance. Scarpa con- 

 tends that it is not analogous with the grey matter 

 of the brain, but that it consists of a rlocculent 



tissue loaded with a mucilaginous fluid, which 

 becomes oily in obesity, and watery and abun- 

 dant in anasarca. The accumulation of fat in 

 the true gangl ionic tissue has, however, been 

 denied by Beclard, Wutzer, and others. Ac- 

 cording to Bichat, whose opinions must always 

 command our respect, " the ganglions have* a 

 colour very different from that of the nerves. 

 They present a soft spongy tissue, somewhat 

 similar to the lymphatic glands, but which has 

 nothing in common either with the cerebral 

 substance or with that of the nerves." It is 

 staled by Lobslein, who has published one of 

 the latest and most minute accounts of the 

 structure and diseases of the sympathetic 

 nerve,* that he has observed lying contiguous 

 to the white and filamentous tissue another 

 substance presenting a flocculent appearance, 

 with globules interspersed (materies vel sub- 

 stantia orbicularis tomentosa), and which he 

 regards as the second material of the ganglia. 



Fig. 170. 



Semilunar ganglion, twice the rtatural sixe. 



a, a, Fasciculi of splanchnic nerve, 

 e, b, Fibres running through the ganglion. 

 c f c, Branches collected from the former, 

 emerging. 



and 



This juicy or gelatinous substance, which is 

 met with in the spinal as well as in the sympa- 

 thetic ganglia, does not, however, according 

 to Lobstein, appear to be an essential part of 

 the organization, as it varies in its proportion 

 in different ganglia, and may even be absent ; 

 nor, it is said, can it be assimilated with the 

 grey matter of the brain. 



Ehrenberg also controverts the opinion that 

 the ganglia resemble the grey part of the brain ; 

 but although he has found by microscopical 

 inspection, that these bodies contain an over- 



d, d, Flocculent or orbicular substance placed be- 



tween and applied to fibres. 



e, e, Foramina perforating the ganglion. 



whelming proportion of large varicose tubes, 

 similar to those of the fibrous portion of the 

 brain, yet he has also shewn that they possess 

 minute varicose fibres like those of the grey 

 substance ; and what particularly is deserving 

 of notice, he has detected in the muscles of 

 the fibres granules similar to those which are 

 found in the cervical portion of 



* De Nervi Sympath. Humani, fabrica, usu, et 

 morbis, p. 66. 



t Structur des Seelenorgans bei Menschen und 

 Thieren, Berlin, 1836, p. 31. 



