SKETCH OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
633 
plexus, or rather an investing membrane, around every vessel of 
the heart and lungs ; and then, having reached the abdomen, and, 
combining in the semilunar ganglion its own influence with that 
of the cerebro-visceral and the phrenic, it becomes the sun or 
centre of organic nervous power ; diffusing its radiations over 
every artery and absorbent and gland and ganglion — every 
thing connected with secretion, nutrition, and life —itself the very 
principle of life and action—the soul of the organic system. It 
was termed, before its character and power were suspected, the 
sympathetic nerve, because it seemed to connect the whole system 
together; it is denominated by others the ganglial nerve, from 
its supposed origin either in the superior cervical, or the semi¬ 
lunar ganglion; but it would more properly be designated the 
great organic nerve —the secretory, nutritive, chemical, while the 
cerebro-visceral is the motor organic nerve. It is the power which 
presides over, and effects the changes in, that fluid which the 
motor nerve keeps in circulation. But we are not yet quite pre¬ 
pared for this. 
My object was to give you a kind of bird’s-eye view of the 
nervous system, that w'e might perhaps be enabled so to class its 
different portions, and trace its connexions, as to remove much 
of the mystery that has been so falsely supposed to hang over 
the subject. 
To the Editors of The Veterinarian 
“ Hoc opus, hoc studiuni parvi properemus et ainpli.”— Horace. 
Gentlemen, 
The late evident decrease of contributors to your periodical 
has not only astonished but deeply affected me. That a Journal, 
so ably and liberally conducted as The Veterinarian has 
hitherto been, should be allowed to deteriorate either in the va¬ 
riety or importance of its practical papers, cannot be regarded, 
either at home or abroad, but as a professional disgrace, and 
must ultimately be a national loss. 
Did you seek any private reputation or sinister advantage, that 
might be urged as a reason for the diminution of practical com¬ 
munications ; but when it is a fact so palpably notorious that 
your object is the improvement of the profession, the advance¬ 
ment of veterinary science, and ‘‘ the common weal” of our so- 
ciet}^ then I say, if your brethren do not support you by their 
contributions, ^Get IchahodhQ written on their fronts’'— Sed 
spero melioraT They surely never will allow it to be said, that in 
