SYMPATHY. 46 1 



and of a specific sense, a deadly blow to the respiratory set of 

 nerves ; and the pneumono-gastric to be a pair both of sense and 

 motion. The peculiarity of the improperly called respiratory nerves 

 arising from a peculiar tract amounts to nothing, if these two nerves 

 of sense also arise from it : and, if the other nerves do arise from a 

 peculiar tract, still nothing can be inferred from the circumstance, 

 since they are all voluntary nerves, and we have seen that their 

 operations differ in nothing from those of all other voluntary 

 nerves, when combinations of actions are required for particular 

 voluntary or instinctive motions, or for the instinctive expression of 

 the passions. The accessory, subclavicular, and phrenic, however, 

 only are in general allowed to have the origin assigned to them by 

 Sir C. Bell ; and even the accessory is declared by Gall x to arise 

 from the posterior (sensitive) roots of some spinal nerves. The re- 

 spiratory tract, or column, is rather an anatomical fancy, for it is not 

 always to be found, and the best anatomists deny its existence. y 

 It thus appears to me that Sir Charles Bell's doctrine respecting 

 the respiratory nerves is merely an untenable whim ; and that his 

 discoveries of the function of the ganglionic portion of the tri- 

 geminum pair, (its other portion having long before been assigned 

 to motion by Paletta,) and of the facial, and of the excitement of 

 motion on irritating the anterior roots only of the spinal nerves, 

 the whole amount, I believe, of his real contributions to the 

 physiology of the nervous system, are only sullied by his views 

 of the functions of his respiratory set. z Even the two first of 



x M. Manec says it often arises at a right angle from the posterior roots of 

 some spinal nerves. Anatomic Analytique. Tableau. 



y Dr. Spurzheim asked Sir C. Bell (Appendix, &c. p. 31.) whether it is true, 

 i. e. whether it is not untrue, that " each lateral portion of the spinal marrow 

 contains three tracts or columns, one for voluntary motion, one for sensation, 

 and one for the act of respiration ;" and " that a fasciculus may be traced down 

 the spinal marrow between the sulci which give rise to the anterior and posterior 

 roots of the spinal nerves." These are Sir C. Bell's words, in his Exposit. fyc. 

 p. 123. 129. I said nothing of the origin of the anterior and posterior roots of 

 the spinal nerves from an anterior and posterior lateral sulcus, when speaking 

 of the anatomy of the chord, because Gall says he could find the posterior only 

 and seldom lower than the first dorsal vertebra, and that the anterior roots 

 do not proceed in a straight line and regularly, as M. Chaussier describes and 

 represents in his plates, but confusedly, sometimes at one distance, sometimes at 

 another, from the middle fissure ; the very dots by which M. Chaussier represents 

 the exits of the nerves, are farther from the middle line than the grooves. ( Gall, 

 4to. vol.i. p. 61. sq.) 



z Dr. Fletcher conceives that Sir Charles Bell is right, as far as he goes ; yet 



