The autonomic nervous system / by J.N. Langley.

  • John Newport Langley
Date:
1921-
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The autonomic nervous system / by J.N. Langley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    spoken of as involuntary nerves, but in a general classification, a division into voluntary and in¬ voluntary nerves was rarely adopted. The use of “ involuntary ” in more or less of the sense in which we have used the term autonomic occurs however throughout the 19th century, and was so used by Gaskell in his last work in 1914. The sympathetic nerves. A different termin¬ ology began with Winslow (1732). The nerve called the intercostal nerve was known to be the chief nerve to send fibres to the intestines, and it was known that it also sent fibres to the heart. In consequence of its numerous connexions it was supposed to be the means by which one part of the body affected another part, or, as it was then stated, by which the sympathies of the body were brought about. Winslow, in view of this, called the nerve the great sympathetic. Two other nerves Winslow considered had a similar function, viz., the portio dura of the seventh nerve, which he called the small sympathetic, and the vagus, which he called the medium sympathetic. The terms small sympathetic and medium sympa¬ thetic were rarely used. In France “great sympa¬ thetic” remained as the designation of the intercostal nerve; in other countries, and sometimes in France, “great” was dropped, and the intercostal nerve became the sympathetic nerve, and with its branches, the sympathetic nervous system. The meaning of sympathetic nervous system has from time to time been extended to include more or less of the rest of the autonomic system. Ganglionic nerves and ganglionic nervous system. A third terminology arose from the investi¬ gation of the ganglia on the course of the nerves.
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