610 



in dissecting a gravid uterus, structures which had a striking re- 

 semblance to ganglionic plexuses of nerves ; and, in the following 

 December, he traced, in another gravid uterus, the sympathetic and 

 spinal nerves into these new structures. He requested several di- 

 stinguished anatomists to examine these dissections, and to compare 

 them with similar dissections of the unimpregnated uterus, which 

 he had made in the course of the same year. He then quotes, at 

 some length, the opinions given by these several referees after their 

 examination ; and which appear, for the most part, to be favour- 

 able to the views of the author, namely, that the structures in ques- 

 tion are not mere fibrous tissues, but that they possess the character 

 of nerves, and that they augment in size with the enlargement of the 

 uterus during pregnancy. Among those to whom the preparations 

 were submitted for examination, however, two persons declared it 

 to be their opinion, which they founded on observations with the 

 microscope, that the filaments regarded by the author as nerves, are 

 bands of elastic tissue only, and not plexuses of nerves ; and the 

 author, on receiving this intimation, withdrew the paper which he 

 had presented to the Royal Society, and which had been read on 

 the 12th of December 1839, in which paper the appearances dis- 

 played in his dissections were minutely described and delineated. 



The author next proceeds to give the history of his subsequent 

 researches on the same subject, which he extended to the corre- 

 sponding parts in some of the larger quadrupeds ; and from all these 

 he obtained accumulated evidence of the truth of his original opi- 

 nions. He also adduces the testimony of various observers, in addi- 

 tion to those he had before cited, which are all in accordance with 

 his own views, as they are expressed in his paper, printed in the 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1841, an Appendix to which was 

 published in the volume of the same work for 1842. Later obser- 

 vations and dissections have served only to confirm him in his opi- 

 nions ; and he considers them as establishing the fact that the nerves 

 of the uterus are considerably enlarged during the gravid state of 

 that organ. 



The author concludes his paper by giving a report, drawn up by 

 Mr. John Dalrymple, of the results of his microscopic examination 

 of the uterine nerves in preparations furnished by the author, which 

 tend to corroborate his views. 



