THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. VI[, No. 78.] JUNE, 1834. [New Series, No. 18. 
MR. YOUATT’S VETERINARY LECTURES, 
DELIVERED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 
LECTURE XLI (continued). 
The Tenth or Cerebro-visceral Motor Nerve ♦ 
f • *. ♦• • 
THIS is composed of fibriculi placed in the same line, and 
still more posteriorly. They unite,—they form or pass through 
a small ganglion, and they have a sheath distinct from the 
glosso-pharyngeal, although they escape with it through the same 
aperture, the foramen lacerum basis cranii. From its strangely 
wandering path it has been called by some the par vagum; and by 
others the pneumo-gastric, on account of its being principally con¬ 
cerned with the functions of respiration and digestion. We shall 
see, however, that it has a great deal more to do,—that it is 
connected with organic life generally,—that it governs or in¬ 
fluences every visceral function,—that it seems to preside over 
the motor or mechanical part of that function, and, therefore, 
as the only visceral nerve derived directly from the brain, I 
have ventured to withhold from it the titles of respiratory or 
pneumo-gastric, as indicating only a part of its function, and 
to term it the cerebro-visceral motor nerve . 
Its Course. —On escaping from the cranium, we find it becoming 
connected with every neighbouring nerve,—-the great organic, 
the glosso-pharyngeal, the spinal accessory, the seventh, and 
the upper cervicals, and forming an intricate plexus of nerves, 
which we can scarcely unravel in dissection, but for which we 
can account when we consider the importance of the parts at 
which we are arriving. Having contributed to form this plexus, 
it enters into the same sheath with the great organic , and in 
company with, and on the outer side of it, and also distinguished 
from it by its greater size and firmer consistence, and having 
also the carotid artery on the inner side of the great organic, it 
pursues its course down the neck. 
VOL. VII. 4 Q q 
