XXX. On the influence of the Nerves upon the Action of the 
Arteries. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. F. R. S. 
Read June 30, 1814. 
That the pulsations of the arteries correspond in their fre- 
quency with the contractions of the left ventricle of the heart, 
is universally admitted; and those pulsations continuing in the 
arteries after the limb to which they belong is rendered para- 
lytic, has led to the belief, that all arterial action is independent 
of nervous influence. 
The object of the present Paper is to shew that the nerves 
which accompany the arteries regulate their actions, and it is 
through their agency that the blood is distributed in different 
proportions to the different parts of the body. 
The facts which have led me to conclude that this office is 
performed by the nerves, I shall lay before the Society in the 
order in which they occurred. 
An officer, who had been wounded by a musket ball in the 
leg immediately below the knee, came under my care. With 
a view to find the ball, a seton was passed in the course it had 
taken, and brought through the skin just beyond the part in 
which it was lodged ; a caustic was then applied to the skin 
just below the tuberosity of the tibia, to which the ligament 
of the patella is attached : it produced great pain all round the 
joint and through the leg, and what was very remarkable, the 
matter in the canal surrounding the seton rose and fell with 
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