474 MR. YOUATTS VETERINARY LECTURES. 
vided, the animal comparatively soon dies. Respiration is a 
vital action, and must not be long disturbed, nor at any time 
suspended ; but any or almost all of the secretions may be for a 
long time suspended, and there will be no apparent distress or 
irregularity to mark the evil. The true answer however is, that 
these anastomoses render it difficult or impossible to cut off the 
influence of the nerve from any organ. 
If, however, I have no experiments, I have many facts eluci¬ 
dating the power of the nerves over the secretions. My illus¬ 
trations are very simple ones. The secretion of tears from men¬ 
tal emotion would be my first, if I were speaking of the human 
being: but the deer will weep; and I have seen the tears 
trickle dowrn the cheek of the horse and the dog. The saliva 
running from the mouth of the hungry dog watching impatiently 
for his food ; the obstinate retention of the milk by the cow, 
until after her calf is supplied (for when the dairy-maid has 
wrung the last drop she can extract, the mother has retained 
more than enough for her offspring); these things shew that the 
cerebral or spinal nerves not only are concerned in the act of 
secretion, but, in some rare cases, and they are rare, they are 
brought under the direct influence of the mind. Need 1 speak 
of the effect of the mind on the motions of all the visceral 
organs, and more particularly on the nature and quality of the 
secretions ; or of the long train of sympathies which exist between 
various parts of the organic and animal system? Why should 
worms in the intestinal canal of the dog produce fits; and 
staggers in the horse, amaurosis ? Why should one morsel of 
hay and a drop of water invigorate the whole frame of the tired 
post-horse, or a poison taken into the stomach produce instant 
death ? It is the result of this connected chain of nervous in¬ 
fluence. But what has this to do with the great organic nerve ? 
Why, it is the only nerve that has been traced to many of the 
seats of these sympathies; it is the only nerve that has been 
traced to many of the glands; and the only one which, attaching 
itself to the bloodvessels, seems to be pursuing its course, and 
can be followed, so far as our sight will permit, to the main se¬ 
creting organs, the capillary vessels. 
I am detaining you beyond the accustomed time; but I must 
say one word of the function of this nerve within the abdomen. 
In the semilunar ganglion it has united itself to a portion of the 
cerebro-visceral and the phrenic. Let me recall to your recol¬ 
lection one viscus, the stomach, in which the effect of two of 
them was plainly distinct. The cerebro-visceral was divided; 
chyle was still produced. The food was partially digested; but, 
for want of the peristaltic motion of the stomach, it could not be 
