ON THE GANGLIONS AND SYMPATHETIC NERVE. 513 



and especially the ganglions, and the creliac or solar plexus, 

 which has been called the abdominal or epigastric brain, should 

 have a great importance in the organization. But before ex- 

 plaining the functions of the sympathetic nerve, it is necessary 

 to examine tfcat of the ganglions. 



813. Willis had, with respect to the ganglions and sympa- 

 thetic nerve, an idea similar enough to that which now 

 prevails: he considered the ganglions as the diverticula of the 

 spirits, and the sympathetic. nerve as placed between the cere- 

 bral conceptions and the precordial affections, between the ac- 

 tions and the passions, in such a manner as to establish a con- 

 sent between the parts. 



Vieussens considers also the intercostal nerve as a sympa- 

 thetic medium between the brain and the viscera of the two 

 other cavities; he places in the ganglions, which he calls 

 plexuses, a centre of muscular and fermentative action. Lan- 

 cisi also regarded the ganglions as centres of impulse which he 

 compared to the heart. 



. Winslow, who first employed the name of sympathetic 

 nerve, regarded the ganglions as centres of origin, true little 

 brains. 



Meckel attributed to the ganglions the use, 1st, of dividing 

 the nervous branches into lesser ramifications, and these into 

 ents; 2d, of making the branches depart in different di- 

 rections to distant places; 3d, of uniting several branches into 

 a single cord. 



Zinn holds the same opinipn, adding that the branches from 

 different points uniting in a ganglion, are more intimately 

 mixed than in a plexus. 



Johnstone regarded the ganglions as brains capable of de- 

 veloping and communicating the nervous power, as the origin 

 of the involuntary nerves, and as- proper to break the influence 

 of the will upon the organs of involuntary motion, such as the 

 heart. 



Haase, who has assimilated the ganglions to the plexus, has 

 controverted the opinion of Johnstone with these two argu- 

 ments: that the voluntary muscles receive nerves from the spi- 



