An experimental investigation into the functions of the eighth pair of nerves, or the glosso-pharyngeal, pneumogastric and spinal accessory / by John Reid.

  • John Reid
Date:
[1839]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental investigation into the functions of the eighth pair of nerves, or the glosso-pharyngeal, pneumogastric and spinal accessory / by John Reid. 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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    was as far advanced as when they employed the galvanic pile.* The positive proofs which we have here adduced of the secretion of the gastric juice cannot be invalidated by the negative results obtained by Tiedemann and Gmelin,f in an experiment upon a dog where the substances vomited after section of the vagii were found to be alkaline. As we believe that we have furnished ade- quate proof that secretion of the gastric juice may occur even when no mechanical or chemical irritation is ap])lied to the lower extremities of the nerves, Ave have not tliought it necessary to ex- amine the supposed efficacy of galvanism, in supplying the want of the usual nervous influence transmitted along tliese nerves. We shall merely remark, that though it appears from the experiments of Wilson Philip, Dr Clarke Abel,+ and Breschet, Vavasseur, and Milne Edwards,§ that galvanism transmitted along the cut va^i nerves to the stomach very much facilitates the digestive process, yet we are led to believe, from the experiments of Bra- chet, that it sometimes fails to do so, and Mviller asserts that, in several experiments performed by himself and Dr Dieckhof upon rabbits, the application of the galvanism in the mode recommended by Dr Wilson Philip had no effect in promoting digestion.|| Secretion of Mucus.—We have examined the stomachs of many animals at various periods after section of the vaffi, and we have never seen any thing which would lead us to su])pose that the usual mucous secretions are there arrested ; on the other hand, we have every reason to believe that they were poured out in the usual quantity, and presented their usual physical properties. When the stomach was empty it was genei-ally found contracted upon itself. The inner surface never presented the inflamed ap- pearance described by Gendrin as the consequence of division of the vagi,^ Sir B. Brodie relates four experiments, in which animals were poisoned with arsenic after section of the vaffi, where the usual -watery and mucous secretions did not take place from the inner surface of the stomach and intestines, though the mu- cous membrane was inflamed.** In three of tlicse experiments the vngi Avere cut in the neck, and, in the fourth, they were di- vided on the cardiac orifice of the stomach, to avoid the effects of the operation upon the breathing. In three, the animals were poisoned by introducing ten grains of Avhite oxide of arsenic into a wound in the thigh; in the fourth, arsenious acid was dissolved and injected into the stomach. Sir B. thinks that the obvious conclusion from these experiments is, that this secretion is pre- * Oper. cit. Tome vii. p. l!.l5-(>. -j- Oner. cit. i Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. xliii. p. 385. § Oper. cit. Tome ii. „ Physiology, &c. p. 550, ^ Histoue Anatomique des InHammations, Tome i. p. 584 IR'^fi Ph.il. Transact. 1812, p. 102. ^
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