CHAPTER XII 



THE CAROTID AND COCCYGEAL BODIES 



A. The Carotid Body 



Historical 



THE carotid body has been known for a very long time. 

 Neubauer described and depicted the body in the year 1786, 

 and Haller had mentioned it many years previously. Andersch 

 was the first to call the body the " gangliolum intercaroticum." 

 In the nineteenth century, Mayer rediscovered the body and 

 showed that it is an organ of constant occurrence. 



It was Luschka who substituted the name " glandula 

 carotica " for Andersch's " gangliolum intercaroticum," and 

 thereby initiated a controversy which has lasted up to the 

 present time. He was struck with the difference between the 

 " ganglion intercaroticum " and the other ganglia of the 

 sympathetic. A careful examination convinced him that the 

 structure was not a ganglion, but a gland made up of cell 

 columns and vesicles. He could find only a few nerve cells 

 in the body. 



The glandular tubes and vesicles described by Luschka were 

 regarded by Arnold as ramifying branches of the artery which 

 supplies the body, while the epithelial cells are those of the 

 lining wall of the bloodvessels. This author proposed the 

 name " glomeruli arteriosi intercarotici." 



Eberth places the carotid body side by side with the coccy- 

 geal ("plexus vasculosus coccygeus ") as the " plexus arteriosus 

 caroticus," and this view was adopted by anatomists generally. 



Katschenko investigated the development of the carotid 

 body in the pig, and reported that it is not of epithelial origin. 

 It is formed in the outer coat of the carotid artery, and is 

 intimately related to the neighbouring nervous ganglia. 



Marchand describes the development of the carotid body 



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