The nervous system of the human body : embracing a dissertation delivered to the medical profession of Philadelphia, and students of the two universities, on the subject of the nerves, brain, and organs of sense / by Ninian Pinkney.

  • Pinkney, Ninian, 1811-1877.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nervous system of the human body : embracing a dissertation delivered to the medical profession of Philadelphia, and students of the two universities, on the subject of the nerves, brain, and organs of sense / by Ninian Pinkney. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    12/36
    death. As these organs, for such I conceive them to be, are de- prived of their peculiar function ; motion, sensation, deglutition and respiratory action cease. No man in this audience can deny that when the functions just named stop, that dissolution will be the instantaneous result. They cannot further deny that the sym- pathetic nerve, according to present views, is acknowledged to preside over all the intricate movements going on in our bodies. These facts being admitted, the pathology just offered is entitled to some consideration. It has been proved that no sensibility exists in the sympathetic nerve, nor in the ganglions formed in its progress. They may be cut, pinched in the living body without producing pain or motion. This establishes the fact beyond the power of contradiction, that these ganglions appropriated to the sympathetic nerve, differ en- tirely from those situated upon the posterior fasiculi of the spinal nerves. Those when pinched produce pain, but do not cause motion. Touch the anterior root and motion is the result. Having given a limited description, we follow the nerve through the three cervical ganglions; from each of these, filaments pass off to the cervical spinal nerves, and some ascend from the superior cervical ganglion to anastomose with the pneumogastric nerve, hypo-glossal, and facial nerves, near their exit from the cranium. Before proceeding further, it would be as well to say something in reference to the cardiac plexus, as regards its formation. It is constructed of three nerves, coming from the sympathetic on the right, and two on the left; they are called cardiac, and are joined by filaments sent from the recurrent nerves and par vagum, after they unite to form the cardiac plexus. This penetrates from the base of the heart to the root of the aorta, is diffused through the muscular structure of the former, its trunks follow the course of the pulmonary arteries. This correct and minute anatomy, is derived from William E. Horner, M. D. I at first started with Dr. God- man's edition of John and Charles Bell's anatomy, as my guide; but I could not rely sufficiently upon the description of parts held forth there. This great anatomist pursues the course of John Bell, and states that the femoral artery, about four inches, more or less, below the groin, sends off the arteria profunda femoris. This,