366 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
of the ruminant afford the most varied and satisfactory illustra¬ 
tion of the function of the cerebro-visceral nerve, and prove it to 
be an organic motor nerve. 
The Sensitive Influence of the "Serve. —I have not forgotten 
the ganglion curiously belonging to this motor nerve, nor the 
possible or probable sensitive influence which it bestows; namely, 
that kind of sensation which belongs to organic life—a conscious¬ 
ness of healthy or of deranged action : nor have I forgotten the 
wide and perfect sympathy which must exist between the vari¬ 
ous parts of so complicated a machine, that it may act orderly 
and beneficially ; and I can conceive, that by anostomoses with 
other parts of this nerve, and more particularly with the great 
organic nerve with which it is already so closely united, and 
with which, by-and-by, it becomes intermingled—I say that I 
can readily conceive how, by anastomoses between these and 
fibres from the sensitive nerves of the spinal column, an inde¬ 
scribable but real feeling of pleasure should accompany the dis¬ 
charge of many of the organic functions, and pain, and some¬ 
times to an acute degree, should mark the departure from 
healthy action. 
The Hepatic and Splenal Plexuses .—As to the fibres, which 
can be plainly traced to the liver and spleen, we know little of 
the minute structure of either, and the function of the latter 
is not yet determined ; but there are nutritive vessels in both : 
there are vessels conveying the fluid from which the biliary 
secretion is formed, or which is to be retained in the reservoirs 
of the spleen ; there are vessels to carry away the secretion or 
the residuum; there are important functions to be performed; and 
therefore I can easily conceive of the agency both of the motor 
and sensitive fibrils of this organic nerve,—the motor ones con¬ 
cerned with the mechanism of the part, and the sensitive ones 
with peculiar or sympathetic organic feeling and co-operation. 
But it is time to return to the medulla oblongata and its lateral 
column. 
RABIES IN SHEEP. 
(.Extract of a Letter from Mr. W. Baker, V.S., Sudbury.J 
Agreeably to your request, I will endeavour to give you 
some account of the symptoms and post-mortem appearances in 
Col. Addison’s sheep, as far as I can recollect them, not having 
taken any note of the cases at the time. 
I think it w 7 as about a month after the rabid dog had been 
among the flock, that the Colonel requested me to ride up and 
see three sheep, which exhibited very unusual symptoms. The 
