ON INTESTINAL SECRETION. 



341 



Lastly, Adrian, after extirpation (which he admits to have been imperfect) 

 of the solar plexus, found no alteration whatever in the vascularity, secre- 

 tion, or movements of the intestine. 



Last year your Committee satisfied themselves, by numerous experiments 

 detailed in their Report, that division of both right and left splanchnic nerves 

 was unattended by haemorrhage, hyperajmia, or excessive secretion of the 

 intestine. 



Messrs. Lewis and Cunningham, in their valuable report of researches on 

 cholera, have confirmed these results iu the case of dogs. The same observers 

 found in three cases that excision of the left semilunar ganglion, iu addition 

 to division of the splanchnics, had no positive effect. 



We have ourselves excised the right, the left, and both semilunar ganglia, 

 with division of both splanchnics iu each instance, in fourteen experiments, 

 and in no case did we find ecchymoses or excessive secretion. The mucous 

 membrane was frequently pale and dry, sometimes moist. In one instance 

 alone, however, as much as 4| cubic centimetres of pale opalescent fluid were 

 found in a loop of the ileum four inches in length. In another case a loop 

 of the ileum of the same length, 18 inches from the valve, contained 13 c. c. of 

 fluid. The 35 inches between this loop and the pylorus only contained 12 c. c., 

 and the mucous membrane throughout was normal. In this case the right 

 semilunar ganglion had been completely removed, as was verified after death, 

 but the left ganglion and splanchnic were uninjured. The animal was in 

 full process of digestion, and the lacteals and receptaculum chyli were dis- 

 tended. It was killed four hours after the operation. 



We have next repeated the experiments of other physiologists, and have, 

 like them, observed that section of both jineumogastric nerves has no efl"ect 

 upon intestinal secretion. Since division of the vagi in the neck of the cat 

 involves section of the cervical sympathetic, it appeared to your Committee 

 that it has been sufiiciently demonstrated that the centre regulating the 

 intestinal nerves does not lie in the ganglionic cord either in the neck or the 

 thorax. 



We therefore next endeavoured to ascertain the effect of destruction of 

 the grey matter of the spinal cord, and with this object destroyed the cord 

 from the sixth dorsal vertebra downwards, not only by means of a bougie 

 passed down the vertebral canal, but also by complete removal of the laminte 

 of the vertebrce and excision of the cord entire. In numerous trials we 

 found that this lesion had no effect upon the vascularity or secretion of the 

 intestine ; and even when the vagi were also divided and artificial respira- 

 tion maintained, the result was negative. 



Looking, therefore, to the complete character of the experiments which 

 have been now carried out on the vagus, the splanchnics, and the spinal 

 cord, it would appear to follow, by way of exclusion, that the regulating 

 influence conveyed by the nerves divided in Morceau's experiments must 

 arise from some of the ganglia of the great solar plexus. 



That the excision of the semilunar ganglia, in our own hands as in those 

 of other experimenters, has been often followed by a negative result is true; 

 but in three cases we obtained good evidence of a consequent paralytic secre- 

 tion ; and the difficulty of this operation, as well as the varying luimbcr and 

 irregular arrangement of the ganglia of the solar plexus in the cat, may not 

 improbably explain the more numerous failures. 



It might be supposed, however, that the non-appearance of a paralytic 

 secretion from the intestine after destruction, apparently tolerably complete, 

 of the solar plexus, while it occurs after division of the mesenteric nerves 

 going to a single loop of intestine, might be due to the blood going to any 



