THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. X, No. 1 14.] JUNE 1837. [New Series, No. 54. 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
By Mr. Youatt. 
LECTURE XI ( concluded ). 
The great Spinal Organic Nerve ( continued ). 
WE have traced the function of the Duodenum, of whatever 
nature it may be, to the influence of the Great Spinal Organic 
Nerve. M. Brachet divided this nerve before it reached the du- 
odenum, and the digestive power of this viscus was at once sus- 
pended ; but it continued in the ileum and the large intestines, 
curiously but satisfactorily proving that another power was here 
at work. He suspected that it was derived from the spinal cord, 
and he divided the dorsal portion of the cord in another animal. 
The digestive function continued to be discharged in the duode- 
num and the jejunum; but it instantly ceased in the intestines 
below, and they became clogged with matter which they could 
not propel. In order satisfactorily to understand this, we must 
for awhile retrace our steps. 
The Structure of the Spinal Cord. — Sir Charles Bell was the 
first to discover and plainly demonstrate the six columns of which 
the spinal cord is composed. The lateral ones, or those which he 
added to the four already acknowledged, and from the sulci at 
the bases of which sprung the nerves of sensation and of volun- 
tary motion, consisted of a narrow line of white matter, very per- 
ceptible opposite to the corpus olivare, lost at the edge of the 
pons varolii, and not very easily distinguished far below the me- 
dulla oblongata. Sir Charles Bell says, that this convexity or 
fasciculus, or virga, may be traced down the spinal marrow, be- 
tween the sulci which give rise to the anterior and posterior roots 
of the spinal nerves. In another place he says, that (t it is con- 
tinued down the lateral part of the spinal cord.” Dr. Quain de- 
scribes it as a depression rather than a projecting substance ; for 
vol. x. m m 
