174 
DR. LEE’S FURTHER ACCOUNT OF 
nerves which followed them, are not seen. A few small branches of nerves from the 
hypogastric plexus are seen ramifying on the posterior and inferior surface of the 
uterus with the uterine arteries. The whole of the superior part of the uterus is co- 
vered with peritoneum. In the second Plate some small branches from the left hy- 
pogastric nerve, before it enters the great ganglion at the cervix, are seen accom- 
panying the left uterine artery on the left side of the lower part of the uterus. From 
Professor Tiedemann’s work it might justly be inferred, that the human gravid uterus 
is more sparingly supplied with nerves than any other organ in the body*. 
In 1 823 Professor Lobstein stated that the uterus before and after conception had 
a very scanty supply of nerves, “Rarissime in uteri substantiam turn vacui turn 
gravidi sese immittere videntur nervorum surculi-i-.” 
In 1829 Professor Osiander affirmed that the nerves of the human uterus had 
never been seen, either by himself or by any other anatomist, and that he had been 
deceived by the authority of scientific persons, when he stated that nerves were 
spread over the whole uterus. 
On the 8th of April, 1838, while dissecting a gravid uterus of seven months, I ac- 
cidentally observed the trunk of a large nerve proceeding upward from the cervix to 
the body of the uterus along with the right uterine vein, and sending off branches in 
its course to the posterior surface of the uterus, some of Avhich accompanied the ra- 
mifications of the vein, and others were inserted into the peritoneum. A broad band, 
resembling a plexus of nerves, was seen extending across the posterior surface of the 
uterus, and covering the nerve midway between the fundus and the cervix. On the 
left side the same appearances were seen, and several branches of the nerves accom- 
panying the uterine vein were distinctly continuous with branches of the great plexus 
crossing the body of the uterus. The preparation was placed in the museum of St. 
George’s Hospital on the 1st of October, 1838. Several eminent anatomists, to whom 
I showed the preparation, thought that I had been misled by appearances, and that 
they were absorbent vessels accompanying the veins and tendinous fibres, spread 
across the" posterior surface of the uterus. They all acknowledged that they had 
never seen nor dissected the nerves of the uterus, either in the human subject or in 
any of the lower animals. I resolved, when another opportunity should present, to 
follow the sympathetic into the gravid uterus, with the utmost care, that I might 
discover, if possible, the nature of the great plexuses covering its surface. 
On the 18th of December, 1838, a woman in the sixth month of pregnancy died 
in St. George’s Hospital, a few hours after the foetus and its appendages had been 
expelled ; the uterus was removed with all its blood-vessels and nerves remaining 
connected with it, and the great sympathetic and sacral nerves were traced to the 
different parts of the uterus, while the preparation was under alcohol. . 
In a communication to this Society, which was read on the 12th of December, 1839, 
* Tabulae Nervorum Uteri, fol. Heidelbergae, 1822. 
f De Nervi Sympathetica Humani Fabrica, &c. Paris, 1823, p. 31. 
