282 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
arteries become relaxed, and a larger quantity of blood is 
admitted than that which circulated through them before. 
The function of the muscular fibres is to regulate the dis¬ 
tribution of the blood in the different parts of the organism, 
and to divide it according to the requirement of nutrition. 
The principle laid down by Henle is therefore correct, viz., 
that the motion of the blood is given by the heart, but that 
the repartition of the same is effected by the tonicity of the 
arteries. This tonicity, regulated by the great sympathetic 
nerve, is modified by the excitants which produce similar 
effects to those that provoke the nutritive sensation, from 
which two opposite states result, contraction or spasm, 
relaxation or atony—paralysis of the coats of the arteries. 
The interesting experiments of Claude Bernard, which 
have been confirmed by all physiologists who have repeated 
them, have demonstrated the influence of innervation on the 
production of the phenomena of congestion. The section of 
the cervical branch of the great sympathetic nerve increases 
the temperature of the head on the side operated on, the 
arteries are dilated, and the capillaries become gorged with 
blood. By exciting the superior cervical ganglion, the con¬ 
trary effect is produced—the arteries contract and the tem¬ 
perature decreases ; but as soon as the excitation ceases, the 
hyperhaemia reappears. Galvanism applied to the great 
sympathetic will cause the arteries to contract so as to ob¬ 
literate them ( Waller ). The contraction extends even to the 
small branches of the pia mater ( Bonders ). Galvanism 
applied to the abdominal ganglia, when a section of the nerve 
has been previously made, produces similar effects of con¬ 
traction and dilatation in the abdominal extremities to those 
before mentioned in the head {Brown-Sequard ). The applica¬ 
tion of mechanical and chemical stimulants have the same 
effect as galvanism. They one and all lead to the exhaustion 
of the excitability and to atony. The vascular dilation is 
therefore a permanent effect, though it is indirect of the 
excitation ( Waller ). The section and stimulation of the 
nerve have not any effect on the calibre of the arteries, as 
Waller believes to have demonstrated. It is the more diffi¬ 
cult to admit this result, inasmuch as, in contradiction with 
the organization of this order of blood-vessels, Weber has 
shown that the veins of one tenth of a line in diameter con¬ 
tract by the application of galvanism. Another experimenter 
(Callenfels) has seen the dilatation from the arteries trans¬ 
mitted to the veins. Is the nervous system of animal life 
able to excite or paralyse the tonicity of the vascular system 
in the same manner as the great sympathetic nerve? Does 
it give off vaso-motor nerves? It is a well-known fact that 
