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XXI. Some observations on the functions of the nervous system, and the relation 
which they bear to the other vital functions. By Alexander Philip Wilson 
Philip, M.D. F.R.S. L. 8$ E. 
Read April 2, 1829. 
The experiments relating- to the function of digestion detailed or referred to 
in a paper which I lately had the honour to present to the Society, appear to 
throw light on the function of the ganglionic nerves, which hold a higher place 
in the animal economy than those either of sensation merely or voluntary 
power, being as essentially a vital organ as the heart or lungs, as will more 
fully appear, I think, from the review of facts which I now beg leave to submit 
to the Society. 
For the last fifteen years I have been engaged in an experimental inquiry 
relating to the laws of the vital functions ; and have from time to time laid 
the results before the Royal Society in six papers, which the Society has done 
me the honour to publish. All the experiments on which the statements are 
founded, having been made in the presence of competent witnesses, the rule 
from which I never deviated, has been to repeat each experiment till no doubt 
respecting the result remained in the mind of any one present ; and it is satis- 
factory to me to he enabled to state, that, although many of these experiments 
have been repeated by the physiologists both of this country and the continent, 
they have in no instance been found inaccurate. I have always abstained 
from troubling the Society till I had some new facts to state, which appeared 
to me to deserve its attention ; and I have confined myself to the simple 
statement of the facts and the means by which they were ascertained. 
The present paper is offered to the Society on a different principle. It con- 
tains no new fact, but a review of what appears to me the necessary inferences 
from the various facts which I have had the honour to lay before it ; and when 
the Society considers that the value of facts depends on the inferences they 
afford, and that the inquirer, both from his more perfect knowledge of the cir- 
