506 GENERAL ANATOMY. 



the cords which belong to them. From this results the irre- 

 gular figure and the interior complication of the lateral and 

 median sympathetic ganglions, which are placed in the middle 

 of many nervous cords, and the regular ovoid form, as well 

 as the simply longitudinal direction of the filaments of the 

 spinal ganglions. 



803. Bichat tried some chemical experiments on the gan- 

 glions, which proved that there was nothing common between 

 their substance and that of the brain. Some anatomists, how- 

 ever, having continued to confound with the ganglions the 

 enlargements of the central nervous mass, composed of white 

 substance and of gray, Wutzer commenced a series of compa- 

 rative chemical experiments upon the ganglions, and upon the 

 intermixture of the white and gray substances of the brain 

 and cerebellum. It follows from these experiments, that there 

 is a real difference between these two objects; that the gan- 

 glions differ from the nerves by a greater proportion of gela- 

 tine, and still more from the encephalon by the excess of ge- 

 latine, by a greater quantity of albumen, and by a less pro- 

 portion of fat. Lassaigne* has made a chemical analysis of 

 the guttural ganglions of the horse, and has found them com- 

 posed, 1st, of fibrine, for the greater part; 2d, of concrete al- 

 bumen in small quantity; 3d, of soluble albumen; 4th, of tra- 

 ces of fatty matter; 5th, of phosphate and carbonate of lime. 

 Lobstein has observed that although they resist putrefaction 

 longer than the nerves, they become converted promptly into 

 fat by immersion in water. 



804. The ganglions of the first sort are those which are 

 found in the course and at a small distance from the origin of 

 the nerves of the spinal marrow. There are thirty of them, 

 on each side, which are named spinal; one upon the trigemini 

 nerve, which is called Gasser's ganglion; one or two upon the 

 par vagum, and one upon the glosso-pharyngeal. The spinal 

 ganglions, first observed by Volcher Goiter, to the number of 

 thirty on each side, have an ovoid or olive form. They be- 

 long to the posterior root alone of the spinal nerves, the ante- 



* Lassaigne, in the Journal de Physiologic, vol. i. 



