294 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
The Course of the Nerve continued .—I will endeavour rapidly 
to trace the course of the trunk of this nerve, and its principal 
ramifications ; and here I would again refer you to the accurate 
delineation of the nervous system by Mr. Percivall; while those 
of you who are acquainted with the French language will also 
study with pleasure the equally accurate, although somewhat 
differently arranged description ofM. Girard. I shall have little 
to say of the comparative anatomy of this nerve in our different 
patients. The function seems to be clearly the same in all,—the 
motions of the various parts connected with organic life are 
the same,—and the only difference in the nerve will consist in 
the number and distribution of some of its fibriculi. 
Anastomosis with the great Organic .—The first anastomosis 
is with the great organic before they are united in the same 
sheath. Some tell us that it helps to form the superior cervical 
ganglion. I am rather disposed to say, that it receives filaments 
from the great organic : but, at all events, if our surmise should 
appear to be well founded, that these are the nerves of organic 
life, the one the motor , and the other the secretory and the 
nutritive one (as the nerves of the central columns of the chord 
being those of animal life, are the one the motor and the other the 
sensitive nerve), we can easily imagine that anastomosis would 
soon take place between them, and that we should soon find 
them in one common sheath, and at length blending together in 
one grand central plexus. 
The Pharyngeal Branch .—This is a very complicated one, 
and before it is fairly distributed over the pharynx, it has con¬ 
nected itself with the pharyngeal branch of the last nerve, and 
with a branch likewise from the spinal accessory. The pharynx, 
although, as I have already stated, comparatively deserted in 
the distribution of nervous influence from the spinal chord, is 
richly imbued with organic power, for the act of deglutition is 
an important and a complicated one : it must be performed, as 
I have said, long before the mind can influence the action of the 
body, and it requires the co-operation of many muscles. An 
attention to what takes place during the act of deglutition will 
convince us how difficult it is to arrest the progress of the food 
when it has once entered the pharynx, and the constrictors are 
pressing upon it: and, in fact, it is almost impossible to pro¬ 
duce the act of deglutition when there is nothing in the pharynx 
to stimulate the organic nerves to action. 
The (Esophageal Branch .—The food having once entered the 
oesophagus, is delivered over to the influence of the pure organic 
nerves ; and as the contraction of the fibres of the constrictors 
of the pharynx forced the food along that canal, so the contrac- 
