Preliminary account of an inquiry into the functions of the visceral nerves, with special reference to the so-called "inhibitory system" / by Joseph Lister .. ; in a letter to Dr. Sharpey, Sec. R.S. received August 13, 1858, communicated by Dr. Sharpey.

  • Lister, Joseph, Baron, 1827-1912.
Date:
1858
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Preliminary account of an inquiry into the functions of the visceral nerves, with special reference to the so-called "inhibitory system" / by Joseph Lister .. ; in a letter to Dr. Sharpey, Sec. R.S. received August 13, 1858, communicated by Dr. Sharpey. 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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    to imply that the bladder, too, while sometimes stimulated through the cerebro-spinal axis, is paralysed by its very powerful operation. Hence it seems probable that the movements of all the hollow viscera are liable to similar influence from the spinal system. At the same time it appears to be a mistake to regard this influence in the light of a strict control; for the experiments related in this letter show pretty distinctly that the contractions of the heart and the peristaltic action of the intestines are regulated, under ordinary circumstances, by the independent operation of the intrinsic ganglia. Professor Schiff has, I understand, observed increase of the heart's action to result from very gentle stimulation of the vagus*, and has come to the conclusion, as stated by Spiegelberg in his paper before referred to, that the inhibiting influence depends upon nervous exhaustion. There are some circumstances which make me enter- tain great doubt as to the correctness of this view. In the first place, the very rapid recovery of the cardiac or intestinal actions when the inhibiting galvanic currents are discontinued, contrasts strongly with the length of time that the impairment of function resulting from a protracted experiment, and certainly due to exhaustion, lasts both in the intrinsic cardiac nerves and in those that connect them with the spinal system. Secondly, although very powerful galvanism not only arrests for the time, but permanently impairs the action of the heart, no such effect is observed to follow the inhibiting influence when it is caused by milder stimulation; indeed, according to my experience, less injurious effects are produced upon the heart by a protracted series of experiments of the latter kind than by a cor- responding set with the currents still more feeble, that increase, while acting, the frequency of the contractions. But if the dimi- nished rate of the pulsations were caused by a partial exhaustion of the cardiac ganglia, an opposite result might have been antici- pated. Again, there can be little doubt that dilatation of the blood vessels, in consequence of a stimulus, is due to an effect produced upon the nervous centres for the arteries, similar to that experienced by the visceral ganglia when subject to the inhibiting influence. Now an inflammatory blush of long continuance may subside rapidly when * Henle and Meissner's Bericht, 1857.