On the physiological uses of the ganglionic nervous system / by James George Davey.

  • Davey, James George, 1813-1895.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the physiological uses of the ganglionic nervous system / by James George Davey. 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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    sequence of the same facts, viz., that the cat digested its hearty meal as well without the nerves of the eighth pair, as with them, because only the solar ganglion and its dependencies were unaffected, left free to continue their normal uses in the animal economy; precisely as they were in the monstrosities of Hall and Lawrence, and precisely as they were (are) in the me- dusa, and in the helpless frog and ^shes (in which the brain and spinal cord were both destroyed), and precisely as they were in him suffering from dementia and general paralysis : and also in one closely folded in the embrace of Morphem. To con- tinue,—that the frogs, guinea-pigs, and dogs, recovered from their wounds and fractures as well without their crural and sciatic nerves as with them, because only the solar ganglion and its dependencies were unaffected, i. e., left free to continue their normal uses in the animal economy; precisely as they were in the several instances just recited. The limits of this paper necessarily cause me to be very brief in my observations, or I may venture in treating of the subject of animal heat, regarding it as a specific function of the solar gan- glion, to show to you how very unsatisfactory are the views and opinions up to this time advocated concerning it. I must then content myself by merely stating that animal heat is plainly not the product of any chemical change taking place, either in the lungs or in the secerning vessels ; nor can it be said to arise out of the different capacities for caloric of the several fluid secretions of the body, and their source, viz., the hlood, nor to depend on the moistening of the organic structures by their several fluids, which has been aflirmed. I feel it neces- sary to add, that the contradictory results of experiments made to demonstrate the influence of the cerebrospinal system on the generation of animal heat, must convince any impartial inquirer that this portion of the nervous organism has nothing