473 
THE GREAT ORGANIC NERVE. 
I think it probable that it does accompany and envelop them ; 
and for want of any better or any other visible agent—for want 
of any other explanation of its influence over the vessels to which 
it seems so exclusively directed, I attribute to its agency the most 
important functions of organic life, nutrition, secretion, and 
absorption. 
Its Anastomoses .—But I perceive another character about this 
nerve—its anastomosis with every other nerve in the frame, be¬ 
ginning within the cranium, and terminating on the coccygean 
vertebrae. A singular kind of anastomosis it is, imparting a por¬ 
tion of itself, and receiving fibres from both the roots of the 
cerebral and spinal nerves, but most of all from the motor. I 
cannot conceive of the existence of any secretion which does not 
imply sensibility in the secreting vessels, and some power exerted 
in order that an effect may be produced. The gland, or the ves¬ 
sels of the gland, must be conscious of the presence of the sub¬ 
stance to be operated upon, and of the accomplishment of that 
effect; and the vessels themselves cannot be palsied and motion¬ 
less while the effect is producing. Therefore I have the few 
sensitive fibrils, but derived from every nerve, for everywhere 
these secretions are going on. The power of these fibrils, by 
their connexion with the organic ones, may be so modified, that 
I shall have the organic sensibility I want, without that animal 
feeling which would bring the operation too much under the 
influence of the mind. 1 have more motor fibrils; for when I 
look over the frame, I have enough for these secerning vessels 
to accomplish. And then, for aught I know, when fibrils from 
the organic nerve are communicated to every spinal one, it may 
be to add, as it were, a third set of filaments to the two of which it 
was already composed ; and in addition to sensation and the 
power of motion, to bestow 7 the faculty of secretion, or to assist 
the discharge of it, in places out of and far away from the thorax 
or the abdomen. 
The Influence of the Nerves on the Secretions .—Have I any 
experiments to refer to in corroboration of this ? 
There are said to be experiments against this hypothesis. The 
great organic nerve has been divided in the neck, and no per¬ 
ceptible effect followed. I am not aware of the history of these 
experiments, or the time that elapsed before the animal died, or 
the physiological fact supposed to be ascertained; but I 
must refer again to the innumerable anastomoses which seem to 
render it difficult or impossible to cut off the influence of this 
nerve from any other nerve or organ ; and I must also observe,that 
the effects of the suspension of the functions of this nerve would 
not immediately develop themselves. If the par vagum is di- 
