1870.] 



The Croonian Lecture by Dr. Waller. 



339 



May 12, 1870. 



Dr. WILLIAM ALLEN MILLER, Treasurer and Vice-President, 



in the Chair. 



The Croonian Lecture, by Augustus Waller, M.D., E.R.S., of 

 Geneva, "On the Results of the Method introduced by the 

 Author of investigating the Nervous System, more especially as 

 applied to the elucidation of the Functions of the Pneumogastric 

 and Sympathetic Nerves." Received May 12, 1870. 



(Abstract.) 



Dr. Waller commenced by stating that he had been long engaged in the 

 investigation of the nervous system by means of the method which he in- 

 troduced many years ago. After drawing attention to the importance of 

 the functions of the nervous system as the seat of all the higher faculties 

 which distinguish animals from plants and man from the lower animals, he 

 referred briefly to the general constitution and intimate structure of the ner- 

 vous system. It is known that after a nerve has been disconnected from the 

 central organs, its medullary part undergoes a series of changes. The tu- 

 bular medulla, or white substance, is disintegrated and finally converted 

 into dark granular matter. On this alteration the author founded his 

 method of investigation, as it enables the inquirer to distinguish the altered 

 from the sound fibres at any point of their course. Dr. Waller soon ap- 

 plied his method to the study of the sympathetic nerve, and was enabled 

 thereby to clear up a great part of the mystery which hung over the origin 

 and functions of this nerve — a nerve which supplies and presides over some 

 of the most important organs in the body, the liver, the intestines, the 

 womb, and especially the blood-vessels. 



In this manner, while associated with Dr. Budge, the author determined 

 the part of the spinal cord termed by them the cilio-spinal region, which, 

 through the part of the sympathetic connected with it, governs the dilating 

 fibres of the iris. In the hands of Prof. C. Bernard, Brown-Sequard, 

 Dr. Waller, and others the results obtained in this inquiry have shown the 

 relation of the spinal cord to the important functions which the sympathetic 

 nerve exercises in regulating the supply of blood in the vessels and, as a 

 consequence, in controlling the general nutrition and temperature of the 

 body. 



Dr. Waller next applied his method to the elucidation of the functions 

 of the ganglions or swellings found on the origin of many nerves. 



On dividing the roots of the spinal nerves, it was found, after a certain 

 lapse of time, that on the posterior root, which is alone possessed of a gan- 

 glion, the central segment remaining in connexion with the spinal cord 

 became disorganized and its elements passed into a state of granular degene- 

 ration ; whereas in the distal segment remaining in connexion with the gan- 



TOL. XYIII. 2 D 



