337 



November 17th, 1853. 



Dr. WALLICH, V.P., in the Chair. 



Dr. Booth gave notice that at the next meeting of the Society he 

 would propose the Earl of Harrowby for immediate ballot as a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, to which as a Peer of the Realm his 

 Lordship is entitled. 



The following papers were read : 



1. " On the Nerves which supply the Muscular Structure of the 

 Heart." By Robert Lee, M.D., F.R.S. Received Nov. 7. 



The author remarks that, in a paper entitled " On the Ganglia 

 and Nerves of the Heart," published in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, Part I. 1839, it is asserted, that "it can be clearly demon- 

 strated that every artery distributed throughout the walls of the 

 uterus and heart, and every muscular fasciculus of these organs, is 

 supplied with nerves upon which ganglia are formed." 



He then states that " recent dissections which I have made of 

 the heart of the race-horse, in which both the muscular and ner- 

 vous structures are largely developed, demonstrate, that from the 

 outer surface to the lining membrane the walls are universally per- 

 vaded with nerves, on which ganglia are formed, or enlargements 

 invested with neurilemma, into which nerves enter and from which 

 they issue, as in all the other ganglia of the great sympathetic 

 nerve. 



" From theae dissections it is seen that the ganglionic nerves 

 which ramify on the surface of the heart, those which have hitherto 

 been delineated in the works of anatomists, are few in number com- 

 pared to those which are distributed throughout the muscular struc- 

 ture of the organ, many of which are wholly independent of the 

 blood-vessels. 



" This anatomical demonstration of the ganglia and nerves of the 

 muscular structure of the heart, completely subverts the opinion 

 still entertained by some physiologists, that the sensitive and con- 

 tractile powers of the heart are independent of nervous influence. 

 It further indicates the real source of the action of the heart as an 

 entire organ, from the commencement to the termination of life ; 

 how the circulation of the blood is carried on when the foetus has 

 neither brain nor spinal cord, and how the detached parts of the 

 heart continue to contract for a time in some animals after its total 

 separation from the body. 



" These dissections are now open to examination by any gen- 

 tleman who may feel interested in the anatomy and physiology of 

 the heart. 



" When Mr. West's drawings of the nerves displayed in these 

 dissections have been completed, they will be presented to the Royal 

 Society, with a description of the appearances delineated." 



Proceedings of the Royal Society. Vol. VI. No. 99. 24 



