272 
DU. LEE ON THE NERVOUS GANGLIA OF THE UTERUS. 
tissue. The component fibres did not form tubes, nor were their interspaces filled 
with the primitive granules or cells of the nervous tissue. 
“In the nerves of the spinal system, the primitive fibres of the neurilema, which 
closely resemble those of the ordinary cellular and fibrous tissues, are arranged in 
the form of tubes, and can be distinguished into cylinder and contents. The same 
structure, on a minute scale, exists, according to Valentin*, in the sympathetic nerves; 
but according to the observations of Remak and Schwann^, the component fibres 
form solid bands, and are of a more transparent character than in the spinal nerves, 
but marked occasionally with swellings, and having granules in the interspaces. 
“ I consider that the difference between the nerves of the sympathetic and the 
fibrous cellular tissue to consist, as regards their microscopic character, in the greater 
proportion of the granules or cells in the interspaces of the fine, reticularly interwoven, 
component fibres of the nervous band ; and this difference I believe to exist between 
the two nerves of the sympathetic system and the white bands of fibrous matter 
which connect the peritoneum with the muscular substance of the womb, and which 
resemble a plexus of nerves.” 
The tubular structure of the ganglionic plexuses on the body of the uterus has 
since been observed by Mr. Dalrymple, and the perfect resemblance of the uterine 
nerves to those of the stomach and intestines demonstrated. The following letter 
contains an account of Mr. Dalrymple’s microscopical examination of the uterine 
nerves. 
6 Holies Street, April 21, 1841. 
My dear Sir, 
After having seen and very carefully examined, some weeks since, your very beau- 
tiful preparations of the nerves of the impregnated uterus, and after having felt con- 
vinced by their continuity, colour, texture, and mode of distribution, that they really 
were nerves, I was a good deal surprised to hear from you, and others, that their 
dentity had been doubted. I was aware that it would have been worse than useless 
to have asked you for a portion of such suspected cords to submit to the microscope, 
knowing that they had been very many months immersed in strong alcohol. It would 
neither have been fair to you, nor satisfactory to me, to have made such an attempt 
at solving the question. 
Being anxious, however, to satisfy myself upon the subject, I obtained an uterus 
(unimpregnated), and while it was quite recent, I traced several nerves, which I re- 
cognised, from their situation round the ureter, and upon the body of the uterus, to 
be similar to some you had previously pointed out to me. These filaments I sub- 
mitted to the microscope, and used a very beautiful eighth-of-an-inch object-glass 
made by Ross. I found that it was impossible, with the most careful dissection, to 
detach any filament of nerve without including a quantity of cellular and elastic 
tissue; so that although the tubular portion, indicating the nerve, was distinct, yet it 
* Repertorium, iii. p. 7G. 
t Mikroskopische Untersuch., p. 179. 
