276 DR. PHILIP'S OBSERVATIONS OIH HHT 



The action of the muscles by which these objects are effected has been 

 ascribed to a particular sympathy supposed to exist between certain nerves. 

 But if the eighth pair of nerves which supplies the lungs originate near the 

 nerves of the diaphragm, and certain muscles of the face, by which the nostrils 

 are expanded, this cannot be said of the nerves of many other muscles equally 

 called into action in severe dyspnoea, the muscles of the loins, &c. ; and if we 

 could by what is called sympathy of nerves explain tlie phenomena in question, 

 it is not to be overlooked that the same sympathy nnist exist with respect to 

 the abdominal as thoracic viscera, for the same nerves supply both. 



We must therefoi'e look for another principle to account for the relation 

 which subsists between such acts and peculiar states of the lungs. The prin- 

 ciple is at hand. The sensation which induces us to inspire forms a necessary 

 link in the chain of causes ; for every contraction excited in the muscles is evi- 

 dently calculated to relieve this sensation in one of the two ways just pointed 

 out. It either tends to expand the chest, or enlarge the passage of the air. 

 It is impossible in such a case to overlook the act of the sensorium, which is 

 sufficient to account for the phenomena without any particular sympathy of 

 nerves, which on the other hand, I have just had occasion to point out, is in- 

 sufficient .for this purpose. 



The muscles employed in extreme dyspnoea are not confined to a particular 

 set. They are the whole muscles of the trunk, and sometimes many of the 

 limbs also, muscles which have nothing in common, except that they are all 

 muscles of voluntaiy motion, and bear the same relation to the nervous and 

 sensorial systems which all other muscles of voluntary motion do. Actions 

 of the muscles of the face indeed are equally associated with sensations referred 

 to the abdomen and the limbs, and arising from causes operating in them. 

 Who can have a placid countenance while in agony from the operation of any 

 cause to whatever part applied ? 



It appears from a great variety of experiments to which I have referred, that 

 organs supplied with ganglionic nerves are subjected to the influence not of 

 any one, but of eveiy part of the brain and spinal marrow. No inference 

 therefore can be drawn respecting the sympathies of any ganglionic nerve, as 

 the term is here used, that is a nerve that either enters or proceeds from gan- 

 glions, according to the sense in which I use the term, from any particular 

 distribution of nerves, or from the part wliere any particular nerve which con- 



