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XXI. Some observations on the f mictions of the nervous system, and the relation 

 which they bear to the other vital functions. By Alexander Philip Wilson 

 Philip, M.D. F.R.S. L. Sg E. 



Read Aprils, 1829. 



X HE experiments relating to the function of digestion detailed or referred to 

 in a paper which I lately had the honour to present to the Society, appear to 

 throw light on the function of the ganglionic nerves, which hold a higher place 

 in the animal economy than those either of sensation merely or voluntary 

 power, being as essentially a vital organ as the heart or lungs, as will more 

 fully appear, I think, from the review of facts which I now beg leave to submit 

 to the Society. 



For the last fifteen years I have been engaged in an experimental inquiry 

 relating to the laws of the vital functions ; and have from time to time laid 

 the results before the Royal Society in six papers, which the Society has done 

 me the honour to publish. All the experiments on which the statements are 

 founded, having been made in the presence of competent witnesses, the rule 

 from which I never deviated, has been to repeat each experiment till no doubt 

 respecting the result remained in the mind of any one present ; and it is satis- 

 factory to me to be enabled to state, that, although many of these experiments 

 have been repeated by the physiologists both of this country and the continent, 

 they have in no instance been found inaccurate. I have always abstained 

 from troubling the Society till I had some new facts to state, which appeared 

 to me to deserve its attention ; and I have confined myself to the simple 

 statement of the facts and the means by which they were ascertained. 



The present paper is offered to the Society on a different principle. It con- 

 tains no new fact, but a review of what appears to me the necessary inferences 

 from the various facts which I have had the honour to lay before it ; and when 

 the Society considers that the value of facts depends on the inferences they 

 afford, and that the inquirer, both from his more perfect knowledge of the cir- 



