THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. X, No. 110.] FEBRUARY 1837. [New Series, No. 50 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
By Mr. You att. 
LECTURE IX (concluded.) 
The great Spinal Organic , or Tenth Pair of Nerves. 
THESE nerves used to be designated by the title of thenar 
vagum, or wandering pair ; and they do wander over many an 
important organ in their course from the medulla oblongata to 
the solar plexus : but there is another pair of nerves, the patho- 
logy of which will soon come under consideration, that pursue a 
still more devious and erratic path. The French have given to 
them the name of pneumo- gastric, as supplying the lungs and the 
stomach with nervous influence ; but I cannot conceive that this 
“ term is sufficiently descriptive of their destination,” for the 
functions of the pharynx, and the larynx, and the heart, are also, 
to a greater or less degree, dependent upon them ; and they enter, 
although not largely, into the composition of that important 
plexus by which the intestines are enabled to carry on and to 
complete the work of digestion. In former lectures, I spoke of 
this nerve as the cerehro visceral motor one. I would beg leave to 
correct this. It is a spinal nerve ; or only a cerebral one, as 
springing from that portion of the spine which is contained 
within the cranial cavity : it is a nerve of sensation as well as of 
motion : it is devoted to the functions of organic life : and it 
has the most important duties to perform of any of the group 
with which it is connected, therefore I would term it the great 
spinal organic nerve. 
Its Origin and Character. — It arises from the corpus olivare, 
immediately posteriorly to the glosso-pharyngeus. The fila- 
ments of which it is composed differ in number in different spe- 
cies of animals, and in different animals of the same species. 
They are placed in the same line, and closely together ; they 
speedily unite, and as they emerge from the cranial cavity their 
bulk suddenly increases, and they form or pass through a distinct 
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