OF ORGANIC SYMPATHY. g 



they arc seated, and to tUe extent to which each of the parts evincing their presence is 

 supplied with ganglial ramifications. 



3. Cerebral Contractility is the contraction occasioned by the will in voluntary mus- 

 cles. It takes place only in such muscular parts as have nerves proceeding from the en- 

 cephalon, or rather from the medulla oblongata and spinal cord, terminating in their 

 structure, and is the result of this conformation and connexion with these large nervous 

 masses. 



The first and second species of contractility result from the ganglial distributions and 

 influence, the third from the superaddition of the nerves of voluntary motion. 



Whilst, therefore, sensibility, in its more perfect grades, is the function of the sensa- 

 tions, is chiefly confined to certain parts and textures of the body, and is dependent 

 upon the part of the nervous system of which the encephalon is the centre, contractilty 

 exists throughout the whole animal structures, although in different grades, and is, 

 with the exception of the third species, or grade of its existence, entirely independent 

 of sensibility and volition : contractility is a general expression of life, sensibility of 

 the higher functions only of this principle. 



Of Sympathy. 

 Note E. 



Baglivi attributed the sympathies to membranous connexion ; Bordeu to the cellular 

 tissue ; Willis and Vieusens to the agency of the nerves ; and Whitt and Broussais 

 chiefly to the brain. Rega divided the sympathies into those of sensibility and those of 

 contractility a division which has much to recommend it. Bichat offered some very 

 excellent observations on the relations subsisting between them and the different parts 

 of the nervous system : but, although these observations were calculated to lead to a 

 more correct arrangement of the sympathies than had been'formerly offered, it has not 

 come to our knowledge that any has appeared founded on a better basis than that in- 

 dicated in the observations of Bichat. 



In a preceding note, we suggested that the sympathies should be arranged into the 

 reflex and the direct the former arising through the instrumentality of the sensorium, 

 the latter taking place independently of it, through the means of the ganglial nerves, 

 and chiefly of those which are distributed to the blood-vessels and which form com- 

 municating cords between the viscera. 



With a view to the illustration of the latter class of sympathies, viz. those which are 

 direct, and chiefly consist of the sympathetic actions of organic life, we shall offer a 

 few remarks. 



When it is considered that the ganglial nerves alone supply the blood-vessels and 

 the secreting organs and surfaces ; that they accompany these vessels to the utmost 

 limits of their ramifications ; that they communicate very freely with each other, and 

 \vith their chief centre the semilunar ganglion ; that they give rise to numerous plex- 

 uses which render the connexion between them still more intimate ; and that they hold 

 a close relation with the rest of the nervous system through means of communicating 

 nerves, the mutual dependence of action between the chief organs of the body, in, 

 health and in disease, may be easily explained : if, moreover, it be granted that the 

 most important vital phenomena, as digestion, assimilation, circulation, secretion, ani- 

 mal heat, generation, 8cc. (see the note on the fwictions of the ganglial system,") in short, 

 that life itself with all those manifestations of it now particularised, and which have 

 been usually called organic, result form the influence exerted by this part of the ner- 

 vous system, through the instrumentality of the vessels, upon the fluid they contain, 

 and in some measure reciprocally by this fluid upon these nerves ramified in the pa- 

 rietes of the vessels, and upon the ganglia themselves through which it must of course 

 circulate, the agency of this system in the production of the class of sympathies under 

 consideration must be evident. From this view of the subject and from taking into 

 account the modifying operation of similar textures, the related action of various or- 

 gans, and, under certain circumstances, the combined influence and re-action of the 

 sensorium, the numerous relations and connexions of healthy function and of disorder- 

 ed action may be more satisfactorily traced. 



When one organ qr system of parts is excited to increased action, or when its oper>- 

 tions are diminished or obstructed, we perceive all the other parts of the system whirh 



B 



