440 FANCIED FUNCTIONS OF 



amaurosis and even cataract may follow wounds of the nerves 

 belonging, not to the eye, but to the face ; and convulsions may 

 follow wounds of the acoustic nerve. Although disease of the 

 spine injures the renal secretion of urine and causes inflammatory 

 excitement of the mucous membrane of the bladder, disease of 

 the kidney frequently produces such an affection of the corre- 

 sponding part of the spinal chord, and consequent paraplegia Q , 

 that both are ascribable to sympathy only ; for no person would 

 consider the spinal chord as depending on the kidney for its 

 power. Castration prevents the horns of the buck from coming, 

 or from growing longer and being shed ; and the removal of the 

 boar's tusks destroys his violent sexual propensity : yet these 

 effects are not thought to show dependence, but merely con- 

 nection. 



Although the involuntary and unconscious functions do not ap- 

 pear to depend upon the encephalo-spinal system, an argument in 

 favour of their dependence upon the ganglions and ganglionic 

 nerves, properly so called, is the fact, that the ganglionic system 

 of nerves is formed before the encephalon and spinal chord ; in- 

 deed, the nervous system of the chest and abdomen are fully 

 formed, while the brain appears still a pulpy mass. P These 

 ganglia and nerves, it may be urged, would hardly be formed 

 before the encephalon and spinal chord but for the sake of the 

 organs which they supply, and the functions of which (with the 

 exception of the genitals) are as perfect at birth as at adult age ; 

 while the brain and its mental powers are slowly perfected. 

 Although the encephalon and spinal chord may be absent in 

 monsters <i, the ganglionic system is, perhaps, always perfect, un- 

 less in extreme deviation, where the nervous system may be 

 diffused invisibly, as in some lower animals. But I do not know 



n See a paper by Mr. Stanly, full of interesting facts, in the Med. Chir. Trans, 

 vol. xviii. 



Lisle On Husbandry, quoted by the Rev. Gilb. White, Nat. Hist, and 

 Antiq. o/Selborne, 1837. p. 304. sq. 



P Gall, 1. c. 8vo. t. i. p. 191. See also 4to. vol. iii. p. 239. sq. 



1 Lobstein, p. 52. sqq. De Nervo Sympathetico, 1823, relates six cases of ab- 

 sent brain and other organs, where the ganglionic system was perfect or even 

 remarkably large ; and Dr. Cayre relates the dissection of nine idiots, in whom 

 the encephalo-spinal system was diseased and wasted, the ganglionic healthy. 

 Nouveau Journ. de Med. t. iv. In Gall's 4to edit. vol. i. p. 37. sqq. will be 

 found a history of the hypotheses respecting the use of the ganglia, as well as in 

 Lobstein's more recent work. 



