The nature and faculties of the sympathetic nerve / by Joseph Swan.

  • Swan, Joseph, 1791-1874.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nature and faculties of the sympathetic nerve / by Joseph Swan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    and the modified faculties in each class will be found, on due; consideration, to produce some satisfactory explanations. For- determining its nature, and the origin of its power, much must be left to probability; but these, if carefully considered, may tend to rational conclusions, and not be without some inte- resting, if not advantageous results. The infoi-mation contained in the following pages has been dra^vn from all these sources ; they are not offered as a complete history of the sympathetic nerve, but only as an addition to the Author's fonner observations. Although the sympathetic nerve has always been considered as an object of interest, and has received great attention from very distinguished anatomists; its functions do not seem to have been properly appreciated. In desiring too much, or in adopting the views of celebrated men, which favor a mechanical physiology rather than those most calculated for elucidating the fimctions of the living body, its most obvious and useful properties have been lost sight of. If a comprehensive knowledge of it is desired, it must be obtained through sufficiently large and extended means. It is not enough for the human body, or for animals to be dissected, unless entire subjects, or lai'ge portions ■n'ith the organs attached to the nerves and blood-vessels are employed, for only then can there be the opportunity of obser\dng the size of ganglia, their ramifications, and plexuses, and their pro- portions to the cerebral and spinal nerves, and the several organs they supply and combine. Small parts dissected with the aid of magnifying glasses may be advantageous in clearing up points obscured by situation, delicacy of structure, and the attachment of connecting tissues; but the investigation of small parts alone, however numerous, is incompatible vnth. suffi-