51 



moister, and they appear formed of a more homogeneous substance ; 

 their membranous coverings are less considerable. They are likewise 

 endowed with a more acute and more delicate sensibility. Every one 

 knows the danger attending wounds of the mesentery, a membranous du- 

 plicature, in itself insensible, but containing such numerous nerves des- 

 tined to the intestinal tube, that the most pointed instrument can scarcely 

 wound the mesentery, without injuring some of their branches. The 

 pain attending affections of the great sympathetic nerves, is of a peculiar 

 kind; it leads directly to the extinction of the vital power. It is a well 

 known fact, that a bruise of the testicles overpowers, in a moment, the 

 strongest man. Every one knows that patients who die of a strangulated 

 hernia, of volvulus, or of every other affection of the same kind, die in the 

 most distressing anguish, their heart feels oppressed, and they are tor- 

 mented with constant vomiting. Intestinal and nephritic colics are at- 

 tended with the same sort of pain; that attending injection of the tunica 

 vaginalis in hydrocele, is of the same kind. We expect a favoura- 

 ble event of the operation, only in those cases in which the patient has 

 felt pain along the spermatic chord, in the course of the spermatic nerves, 

 which arise, as it is well known, from the renal plexus. In the case of 

 wounds of the abdomen, I was led, by the nature of the pain which the 

 patients suffered, to prognosticate that the wounds had penetrated; the 

 event justified my prognostic. In all these affections of the great sympa- 

 thetic nerves, the pulse is frequent and hard, the face is covered with a 

 cold sweat, the features are sunk ; all the symptoms are alarming, and 

 soon terminate fatally. 



The use of the system of the great sympathetic nerves is, not merely 

 to establish a closer connexion and a greater union between all the or- 

 gans which perform the functions of assimilation, but likewise to free 

 those parts from the influence of the will. A power of the mind so fickle 

 and so varying, that life would be in constant danger, if we had it in our 

 power to stop or suspend the exercise of functions with which life is es-, 

 sentially connected. 



If we consider what are the organs to which the functions of assimila- 

 tion are entrusted, and which receive their nervous influence from the 

 great sympathetic nerves, we shall find that the action of the greater 

 number is wholly independent of the controul of the will*. The heart, 

 the stomach, the intestinal canal, Sec. do not obey the will, and seem to 

 possess a more insulated and more independent existence, and act and 

 rest, without any influence on our part. Some of these organs, as the 

 bladder, the rectum, and the muscles of respiration, which do not receive 



upon ; and they also know, that a vast number of nervous filaments exhibited in en- 

 gravings, were never seen elsewhere. When nervous filaments are traced until they 

 become as small as a hair, they cannot be distinguished from cellular substance when 

 coagulating agents are used, the material produces corresponding effects on all the ad- 

 joining textures, hence the difficulty is increased rather than diminished. Godman. 



* All these parts which receive their nerves from ganglions, are equally independent. 

 Professor Chaussier thinks that the upper filaments of the great sympathetic nerves 

 ascend along the internal carotid, and join the sphenopalatine and lenticular ganglions. 

 M, Ribes thinks he has ascertained by dissection, that several very long and slender 

 filaments follow the course of the branches of the internal carotid, and like them are 

 sent to the base of the brain, beyond which they cannot be traced. I have myself ob- 

 served, in dissection, these filaments around the branches of the internal carotid artery, 

 but I had always considered them to be formed of cellular substance. Author's Note. 



