468 MR. YOUATT S VETERINARY LECTURES. 
from the great organic, while it is running along the crus of the 
diaphragm, and which, after turning backwards, and describing 
a kind of arch, also enters the abdomen. 
The great Organic in the Abdomen .—The main trunk of this 
nerve continues in the abdomen close to the transverse processes 
of the vertebrae, and, gradually creeping up the sides of the ver¬ 
tebrae as we proceed' backward along the loins, it pursues its 
course to the pelvis. Opposite to each lumbar nerve a ganglion 
is formed, and from it two little branches are given off*: one anas¬ 
tomoses with the lumbar nerve on the same side, and the other 
either creeps under the aorta and unites itself to the correspond¬ 
ing branch on the opposite side, or climbs over the aorta, 
mingling with the net-work of nervous matter from the organic 
nerve, and which has been continued along the whole course of 
the vessel, and then, emerging from this plexus, it joins its 
fellow on the opposite side of the spine. When we reach the 
pelvis, the great organic still continues its path along the sacrum, 
forming the same kind of ganglia, and communicating with the 
sacral nerve on the same side, and with the branch of the organic 
on the other side, and that through the medium of dense inter¬ 
posed nervous plexuses. Having passed the sacrum, the nerve 
rapidly diminishes : it runs under the peritoneum' for a little, way, 
and then, reduced to extreme minuteness and thinness, it dis¬ 
appears; and, as some tell us, in a ganglion, formed by the union 
of the two nerves, which describe a kind of arch to meet each 
other. 
The Splanchnics in the Abdomen .—The splanchnic nerves, 
having entered the abdomen, bend suddenly downward, and 
form the principal portion of the semilunar ganglion. A part of 
the lesser splanchnic is devoted to the same purpose, while an¬ 
other branch of it goes on and enters into the renal plexus. I 
have already stated, that the cerebro-visceral and the phrenic 
nerves contribute important branches to the same ganglion. 
The Semilunar Ganglion .—Under the posterior aorta, at the 
root of the coeliac artery, and occupying the space between the 
cceliac and the anterior mesenteric arteries, the splanchnics, the 
left branch of the cerebro-visceral, and a branch from the phrenic, 
meet, and form what has been called the semilunar ganglion , 
If shape it might be called, that shape had none 
Distinguishable ;— 
Or substance might be called, that shadow seemed, 
For each seemed either. 
As these nerves approach each other, they lose their individual 
form and character; they diffuse themselves into numerous fila¬ 
ments, uniting again to form distinct ganglia; and these matted 
