Volume 2

Quain's elements of anatomy / edited by Edward Albert Schäfer and George Dancer Thane.

Date:
1895-1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quain's elements of anatomy / edited by Edward Albert Schäfer and George Dancer Thane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    colon, and assists in supplying the rectum. The nerves of this plexus, like those of the superior mesenteric plexus, are firm in texture and of a whitish colour. The highest branches (those on the left colic artery) are connected with the last branches (middle colic) of the superior mesenteric plexus, while others in the pelvis unite with offsets derived from the pelvic plexus. On the branches of the cceliac and mesenteric plexuses Pacinian corpuscles are often present. They are very variable in number, and are not so numerous or regular in man as in. the cat. Their most frequent seat is in the loose tissue behind the pancreas. HTPOGASTKIC PLEXUS. The hypogastric plexus, the assemblage of nerves destined for the supply of the viscera of the pelvis, lies. Invested in a sheath of dense connective tissue, in the interval between the two common iliac arteries. It is formed by the prolongations of the aortic plexus on each side, which receive considerable branches from the lumbar gangUa, and, after crossing the common iliac artery, interlace in the form of a flat plexiform mass placed in front of the lowest lumbar vertebra. The plexus contains no distinct ganglia. At the lower end it divides into two parts, which are directed downwards, one to each side of the pelvic viscera, and form the pelvic plexuses. PELVIC PLEXUS. The pelvic or inferior hypogastric plexuses (fig. 2M,pl), one on each side, are placed in the lower part of the pelvic cavity by the side of the rectum, and of the vagina in the female. The nerves, continued from the hypogastric plexus, enter into repeated communications as they descend, and form at the points of connection small knots, which contain a little ganglionic matter. After descending some way, they become united with branches of the spinal nerves, as well as with a few offsets of the sacral ganglia, and the union of all constitutes the pelvic plexus. The spinal branches which enter into the plexus are furnished from the third and fourth sacral nerves, sometimes also the second. Small ganglia are formed at the places of union of the spinal nerves, as well as elsewhere in the plexus. From the plexus so constituted, numerous nerves are distributed to the pelvic viscera. They correspond in great measure with the branches of the internal iliac artery, and vary with the sex ; thus, besides heemorrhoidal and vesical nerves, which are common to both sexes, there are nerves special to each :—namely, in the male for the prostate, vesicula seminalis, and vas deferens ; in the female, for the vagina,, uterus, ovary, and Fallopian tube. The nerves distributed to the urinary bladder and the vagina contain a larger proportion of spinal fibres than those furnished to the other pelvic viscera, Haemorrhoidal plexus.—These slender nerves proceed from the upper part of the pelvic plexus. They join with the nerves (superior hgemorrhoidal) which descend with the inferior mesenteric artery, and penetrate the coats of the rectum. Vesical plexus.—The nerves of the urinaiy bladder are very numerous, Thej are directed from the lower part of the pelvic plexus to the side and lower part of the bladder. At first these nerves accompany the vesical blood-vessels, but after- wards they leave the vessels, and subdivide into minute branches before perforating the muscular coat of the organ. The lower part of the ureter is also supplied by these nerves ; and secondary plexuses are given in the male to the vas deferens and the vesicula seminalis. The nerves of the vas deferens ramity round that tube, and communicate in the spermatic cord with the nerves of the spermatic plexus. Those furnished to the vesicula seminalis form an interlacement on the vesicula, and some branches