324 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



extensive Occurrence of Unstriped Muscles in the Skin in 

 the Mammalia/'* 



As this paper throws some additional light upon the pro- 

 bable action of the orbital muscle, I append a short abstract 

 of it :— 



H. Miiller, after referring to the many puzzling questions 

 which have arisen respecting the function of the sympathetic 

 nerve, and its relations to the muscles supplied by it, pro- 

 ceeds to ask two questions : — 



1st, Whether and which unstriped muscles are supplied 

 by other nerves than the sympathetic ? 



2d, Whether and which transversely-striped muscles are 

 under the influence of the sympathetic ? 



In answer to the first, the action of the oculo-motor nerve 

 upon the unstriped fibres of the iris cannot be doubted ; the 

 vagus also acts upon unstriped muscles, and the experiments 

 of SchifT have shown that the greater part of the vascular 

 nerves are not connected with the sympathetic. 



The second question may be most effectively answered by 

 considering the effect produced upon the eye-ball by division 

 or irritation of the cervical sympathetic. Miiller, for this 

 purpose, refers to the experiments of Bernard, E. Wagner, 

 and Brown-Sequard ; the general tendency of which is to 

 show, that division of the cervical sympathetic produces 

 narrowing of the palpebral fissure, retraction of the bulb, 

 projection of the nictitating membrane and narrowing of the 

 anterior nares and the mouth. Irritation of the nerve by 

 galvanization, on the other hand, produces increase of the 

 opening of the lids, projection of the bulb, retraction of the 

 nictitating membrane, relaxation of several facial muscles. 

 Bespecting the causes which produced these changes there 

 was some difference of opinion. B. Wagner could scarcely 

 conceive that any force, save the contraction of the two 

 obliqui, could produce projection of the eye-ball, and yet, 

 he asks, " how could these transversely-striped muscles re- 

 ceive excito-rnotory fibres from the sympathetic ?" Brown- 

 Sequard, again, considered that retraction of the bulb, after 



* TJeber den Einfhiss des Sympathicus auf einige Muskeln, &c. Von H. 

 Miiller, " Verhandlungen der Phys. Med. Gesellschaft in Wurzburg." 



