102 



Mr. J. S. R. Russell. The Abductor and [Mar. 31, 



V. " The Abductor and Adductor Fibres of the Recurrent 

 Laryngeal Nerve." By J. S. Risien Russell, M.B., M.R.C.P. 

 Communicated by Professor V. Horsley, F.R.S. Received 

 March 17, 1892. " 



(From the Pathological Laboratory of University College, London.*) 

 CONTENTS. 



I. Introduction. 



II. Historical Account of Previous Experimental Researches. 



III. Operative Procedure. 



IV. Division of Subject and Analysis of Results. 



A. Division of the Subject. 

 P>. Analysis of Results. 



Section 1. Separation and Excitation of the Individual Bundles of 

 which the Nerve is composed. 



Section 2. Relative Vitality of the Respective Bundles. 



Section 3. (Control) Tracing the Respective Bundles to their Peri- 

 pheral Terminations by Dissection. 



Section 4. (Control) Direct Observation of the Abductor and Adduc- 

 tor Muscles in Action after Dissection. 



Section 5. (Control) Degeneration Method. 



V. Summary and Conclusions. 



Intboduction. 



While engaged in certain experimental investigations in connexion 

 with the cervical nerve roots of the dog ('Roy. Soc. Proc.,' 1892), the 

 ease with which I fonnd one conld separate, in a nerve root, the 

 different bundles of nerve fibres which are concerned with one func- 

 tion from those concerned with another, or even a bundle of nerve 

 fibres destined for the supply of one muscle from one destined 

 for the supply of another, led me to suppose that by exercising 

 sufficient care, it might be possible to separate, in the same way, the 

 abductor from the adductor fibres in the recurrent laryngeal nerve. 

 It is a matter of clinical and pathological experience (Semon, Rosen- 

 bach) that in organic and progressive affections of this nerve the 

 abductor fibres are prone to succumb before the adductors ; but why 

 this should be so is not at all clear. In like manner, in the well- 

 known experiments of Gad and B. Frankelf on freezing the nerve, the 

 abductor fibres give way before the adductors do. Jeanselme and 

 Lermoyez,^ by electrical excitation of the laryngeal muscles of human 



* Part of the expenses connected with this experimental research have been 

 defrayed by a grant from the Scientific Grants Committee of the British Medical 

 Association. 



f ' Centralblatt fur Physiologie,' May 11, 1889. 



% ' Arch, de Physiol, normale et pathol./ No. 6, 1885. 



