ip8 Dr. Haighton's experimental Inquiry 
dent. On the contrary, I am persuaded that anatomy can 
determine only the presence and existence of an uniting me- 
dium ; but it is the province of physiology to decide whether 
the medium of union possess the characters, and perform the 
function, of the original nerve. 
The evidence of reproduction, as resting on this experi- 
ment, may not be sufficient to obviate certain doubts, which 
reflections upon this subject may probably suggest. There is 
a difficulty which naturally presents itself here, and this is, 
the possibility of the stomach and vocal organs having re- 
ceived an additional supply of nervous energy from another 
source. And to give an appearance of validity to this objec- 
tion, it may be said that the eighth pair of nerves communi- 
cates energy to the larynx by means of the laryngeal branch, 
and that this branch arises from the trunk above the part 
where the division was made, and consequently its function 
received no interruption from the experiment. Again, with 
regard to the stomach, another apparent objection offers. This 
organ receives nerves from the great sympathetic, as well as 
the eighth pair ; and nothing hitherto advanced has tended to 
disprove, that the defect of nervous influence from the divi- 
sion of the latter, has been supplied by greater exertions of 
the former. Lastly, the familiar analogy of the vascular sys- 
tem, where collateral branches are enlarged from the oblitera- 
tion of a principal trunk, tends further to give weight to these 
doubts. 
To remove these seeming difficulties by anatomical investi- 
gation, or by directing my views to any changes that might be 
induced on the anastomosing nervous filaments, would be an 
undertaking not less tedious in its execution than unsatisfac- 
