The sympathetic nervous system in disease / by W. Langdon Brown.

Walter Langdon-Brown

Date:: 1923

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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The sympathetic nervous system in disease / by W. Langdon Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Gaskell left many points still in doubt as to the course and distribution of the sympathetic impulses. Our gratitude to Gaskell must not blind us to our indebted¬ ness to Langley, whose beautiful and accurate researches on this subject are of paramount importance. The elucidation of the plan of the sympathetic nervous system is almost entirely due to these two men, and remains one of the greatest achievements of the Cambridge School of Physiology. Gaskell first showed that the nerve fibres which flowed from the spinal cord into the sympathetic chain were of a smaller calibre than the nerves to the skeletal muscles. Adopting this as a standard, he was able to show that there were fibres with visceral functions in the cranial and the sacral nerves (see figs. 2 and 3). Such fibres subserve the functions of organic life, and are not under the control of the will. Various names have been sug¬ gested to include all such visceral fibres. The term “ autonomic nervous system,” introduced by Langley, has, perhaps, met with the most general acceptance.1 It will, therefore, be convenient to classify the whole of the visceral or involuntary nervous system thus (see hg.l) : Autonomic Nervous System 1. Sympathetic (thoracico-lumbar outflow). 2. Para-sympathetic : (a) Cranial outflow : (i) From the mid-brain. (ii) From the medulla. (b) Sacral outflow. These groups of sympathetic and para-sympathetic fibres are separated by the cervical and lumbar enlargements of 1 In view of the two senses in which “ autonomic ” has been employed, the name “ vegetative nervous system ” has been suggested and is widely used in America. But vegetative is hardly an appropriate term for the violent reactions typical of this system.

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