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XI. An Appendix to a Paper on the Nervous Ganglia of the Uterus , with a further 
Account of the Nervous Structures of that Organ. By Robert Lee, M.D . , F.R.S., 
Coll. Reg. Med. Socius. 
Received June 16, — Read June 16, 1842. 
From the functions of the human uterus, Galen inferred that it must be supplied 
with nerves, but there is no evidence to prove that Galen, or any of the celebrated 
anatomists who flourished before the middle of the eighteenth century, ever traced 
the great sympathetic and sacral nerves into the uterus, or discovered that its nerves 
enlarge during pregnancy. This was first done by Dr. W. Hunter, who describes the 
hypogastric nerve on each side as passing to the gravid uterus, behind the hypogastric- 
vessels, and spreading out in branches like the portio dura of the seventh pair, or 
like the sticks of a fan, with many communications over the whole side of the uterus 
and vagina. As Dr. Hunter never examined the nerves of the unimpregnated 
‘uterus, and saw the nerves of the gravid uterus dissected only in one subject, he did 
not certainly know that they increased after conception. “ I cannot,” he observes, 
“ take upon me to say what change happens to the system of uterine nerves from 
utero-gestation, but I suspect them to be enlarged in proportion as the vessels*.” 
Mr. John Hunter denied that the nerves of the uterus ever enlarged during preg- 
nancy. “The uterus in the time of pregnancy,” he says, “ increases in substance and 
size, probably fifty times beyond what it naturally is, and yet we find that the nerves 
of this part are not in the smallest degree increased. This shows that the brain and 
nerves have nothing to do with the actions of a part, while the vessels which are 
evident increase in proportion to the increased size ; if the same had taken place 
with the nerves, we should have reasoned from analogy'^-.” Dr. William Hunter 
left no preparations of the nerves of the uterus, nor did Mr. J. Hunter, in support 
of their conflicting statements, and at the beginning of the year 1838 I believe there 
were no preparations in this country, showing the nerves of the uterus dissected, 
either in the unimpregnated or gravid state. Sir Astley Cooper then maintained, 
that it was impossible for the nerves of the uterus, or the nerves of any other organ, 
to increase under any circumstances. 
In 1822 Professor Tiedemann published a description of the nerves of the uterus 
with two engravings. In the first, the spermatic nerves are represented on both sides 
accompanying the spermatic arteries to the ovaria. The spermatic veins, and the 
* An Anatomical Description of the Human Gravid Uterus. Lond. 1794, p. 21. 
t The works of J. Huntek, vol. iii. p. 117. A.D. 1837. 
