514 GENERAL ANATOMY. 



nal ganglions, and that the involuntary organs, as the stomach, 

 receive them from the par%a'gum. 



Scarpa adopts an opinion similar to that of Meckel and 

 Zinn: according to him the use of the ganglions is to mix 

 and to unite anew the nervous filaments; according to him the 

 nerves of the viscera emanate directly from the spinal nerves, 

 and from the fifth and sixth pairs, and are only collected to- 

 gether in the ganglions. 



All these opinions, as we see, may be referred to two. 

 Some as Meckel, Zinn, Haase, Scarpa, and more recently, 

 Legallois, have seen in the ganglions, only a particular ar- 

 rangement, an anatomical disposition of the nervous filaments; 

 the others, as Winslow, Johnstone, Lecat, Petit, Metzger, 

 &c., have regarded the ganglions as points of origin, and es- 

 pecially as centres of nervous action. No one has defended 

 this last idea with more warmth and talent than Bichat. Reil, 

 Autenreith, Wutzer, Broussais, and many others, have added 

 new arguments to those of our celebrated author, whose opin- 

 ion they have nearly embraced. 



814. Bichat regards the organic nervous system as result- 

 , ing essentially from numerous centres or from ganglions united 

 together by filaments, and the sympathetic nervous trunk it- 

 self as a series of ganglions and anastomosing filaments. Bi- 

 chat has perhaps given to ganglions an exaggerated import^ 

 ance; but certainly he has not granted to their ensemble, their 

 reunion, all the importance which it merits. 



According to Reil, the sympathetic nerve constitutes a pe- 

 culiar system, which he calls ganglionary system; he calls it 

 also the vegetative nervous system. In the vertebrate animals 

 it is united to the cerebral or animal system, but if does not 

 emanate from it. This system, instead of having a single cen- 

 tre where the roots are implanted, has several -foci of action: 

 1st. It consists of plexuses or net work placed around the arte- 

 ries, about twelve in number; among them, a principal one, 

 the epigastric, furnished with ganglions, and forming second- 

 ary plexuses, is a sort of centre or brain. 2d. These plexuses 

 are connected with the cerebro-spinal system by branches and 

 conducting plexuses; the two trunks united below, before the 



