The value of nerve-supply in the determination of muscular homologies and anomalies / by D. J. Cunningham.

  • Cunningham, D. J. (Daniel John), 1850-1909.
Date:
[1890?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The value of nerve-supply in the determination of muscular homologies and anomalies / by D. J. Cunningham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    (^( ^\^\ GCT91 Fj THE VALUE OF Is^ERVE-SUPPxS IN THE DETER- MINATION Oi' .MUgCUI^,, HOMOLOGIES AND ANOMALIES.! By j,. ^^ningham, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and Chirurgery, University of Dublin. The Heidelberg School of Anatomy is responsible for the theory that a muscle is to be regarded as the end-organ of a nerve, and that if we succeed in recognising the latter, we have in our hands a sure and infallible means of determining the homology of the former. This view, which was first advanced by Gegen- baur, and which has been maintained and elaborated with so much ability by his pupils Fiirbringer and Huge, has exercised for some ten years or more a marked influence upon morpho- logical work. Prior to its enunciation, investigations into the comparative anatomy of the muscular system were conducted in a very un- satisfactory manner, and the great majority of the papers which were written on the subject contained little more than dreary catalogues of origins and insertions with haphazard hints as to homologies. One writer, indeed, in this country—the late Professor Rolleston—in his well-known observations upon the serial homo- logies of the muscles in connection with the shoulder and pelvic girdles, had employed the nerve-test with marked success, but in the determination of ordinary homologies it was customary to rely solely upon a consideration of the position and attach- ments of a muscle. But whilst there cannot be a doubt that the nerve of supply is the best and safest guide to follow in our endeavours to trace the history of any muscle or group of muscles, and that it will, in the vast majority of cases, lead us to right conclusions, there Ls grave reason for the belief that it is not an absolutely in- fallible guide. Nine years ago, at the meeting of the International Medical ^ Thia commanication was the opening statement in the discussion on this subject in the Section of Anatomy and Physiology, British Medical Association, Birmingham, July 1890.