350 
MR. YOUATT’s VETERINARY LECTURES. 
direction ; several reach the cardiac orifice ; others pursue their 
radiating course over the smaller curvature of the stomach ; and 
there they meet and anastomose freely with ramifications from 
the right nerve, which had been distributed over the same portion 
of the viscus ; so that there is communication of the fibres, and 
blending of the influence of both nerves for some important pur¬ 
pose. The other division of the left nerve crosses above the 
stomach towards the left; it pursues the course of the gastric 
artery, and reaches and contributes to form the great semilunar 
ganglion. I have said that the left nerve, even before its 
entrance into the abdomen, was larger than the right: the 
difference of size is more evident within the abdominal cavity ; 
and the reason of this superiority of bulk in the left nerve is now 
sufficiently plain, for it has an additional and a most important 
duty to discharge. 
The Ramifications of the Right Nerve. —The right nerve runs 
on to the stomach, and distributes many filaments about the 
cardiac orifice, and then divides into several branches; some go 
to the smaller curvature, where, as I have said, they anastomose 
with ramifications from the left nerve; others supply the greater 
curvature ; they spread over the under part of the stomach ; they 
give branches which can be traced to the spleen, and others 
which reach and entwine round the pyloric orifice, and they are 
not lost until they have travelled far down the duodenum. A 
considerable branch has previously been sent to the liver; and 
amidst all these ramifications the nerve terminates, and is seen 
no more. The French might, therefore, with some propriety, 
call it the pneumo-gastric ; for it is given to the stomach and its 
dependencies as well as to the lungs, and it is far more a gastric 
than a pulmonary nerve: but it is connected directly with all the 
thoracic viscera, and with those of the abdomen, as far as the 
duodenum, and with all the rest by means of its communication 
with the semilunar ganglion. 
It is an Organic Nerve. —We do it injustice when we merely 
term it a respiratory nerve, or when we consider all its ramifica¬ 
tions, and all the viscera on which it bestows its influence, as 
merely subsidiary to the function of respiration. I have called 
it the cerebro-visceral motor nerve, and we will now inquire how 
far this title is applicable to it within the abdomen. 
The Progress of Experiments on the Influence of the Cerebro- 
Visceral Nerve. —The earliest experiments that were made on 
the influence of the cerebro-visceral nerve had reference to the 
function of respiration. Whether the mere branch of this nerve, 
the recurrent, or the main trunk of the nerve, (and these were 
generally confounded), was divided, there resulted manifest 
