INNERVATION OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS 563 



spinal cord in the lumbar region excited the uterus . to contract, and 

 later investigators have obtained similar results.^ Eohrig^ showed 

 that asphyxia which may bring about uterine contractions (and 

 abortion in the pregnant condition) cannot do so if the lumbar cord 

 is destroyed. Frankenhauser ^ and ' Korner * discovered that the 

 efferent nerve fibres left the lumbar region of the spinal cord, and 

 after traversing the sympathetic, the inferior mesenteric ganglia and 

 the aortic plexus, made their way tO' the uterus. Langley^ found 

 that the majority passed to this organ by way of the sympathetic in 

 the region of the fourth, fifth, and. sixth lumbar ganglia, so that 

 they probably arise from the third, fourth, and fifth spinal nerves. 

 Subsequently Langley and Anderson** showed that stimulation of 

 the second, third, fourth, and fifth lumbar nerves (in cats and rabbits) 

 causes pallor and contraction of the Fallopian tubes, uterus, or 

 vagina, but that stimulation of the first and sixth lumbar nerves 

 produces no effect. They state that the efferent fibres are motor for 

 the muscular walls and vaso-constrictor for the small arteries.. The 

 effect on the uterus and vagina was found ' to vary with the state of 

 the uterus in regard to parturition. Langley and Anderson state 

 that the sacral nerves send neither motor nor inhibitory fibres to any 

 of the internal generative organs, thus differing from Kehrer, Korner, 

 and others, who say that they obtained contraction of the uterus on 

 stimulating these nerves. 



Keiffer'' also independently investigated ' the innervation of the 

 iuterus, and the results obtained by exciting various nerves, his 

 iobservations agreeing for the most part with those of Langley and 

 Anderson.^ 



Cushny, in the paper already referred to, has described at some 

 length the effects of hypogastric stimulation, which produced in the 

 rabbit powerful contraction of the whole uterus irrespective of its 

 ■condition in regard to the occurrence of pregnancy. If the stimula- 

 tion was prolonged for more than fifteen seconds the organ remained 

 in a state of extreme contraction (tetanus uteri), but oscillations soon 



^ Budge, " Ueber das Centrum genitospinale des Nervus syiBpathetious," 

 Vir.chovfs Archiv, vol. xv., 1858. Eiemann, "Einige Bemerkungen iiber die 

 Innervation der Gebarmutter," Arch.f. Oyncik., vol. ii., 1871. 



2 Rbhrig, " Experimentelle Untersuchungen iiber die Physiologie der 

 Uterusbewegung," Virchov^s Archiv, vol., Ixxvi., 1,879.. 



^ Frankenhauser, " Die Bewegungsnerven der Gebarmutter,'' Jenaische 

 Zeitsoh. f. Med., vol. i., 1864. 



* Korner, Studien d. Phys. InstittUs zu Breslau, 1865. 

 ^ Langley, loc. cit. 



■" Langley and Anderson, loc. cit. 



^ Keiffer, Recherches sur la Physiologic de I' Uterus, Bruxelles, 1896. 



* Feldman {loc. cit.) states that motor nerve fibres to the uterus come from 

 the pneumogastric, phrenic, and splanchnic, and that sensory fibres pass, through 

 the sacral nerves. 



