Extract from a lecture on the nervous system, January 1839 / [Marshall Hall].

  • Hall, Marshall, 1790-1857
Date:
[1839]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Extract from a lecture on the nervous system, January 1839 / [Marshall Hall]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the medium of the pneumogastric nerve. A similar phe¬ nomenon is produced by irritating the trunk of the pneumo¬ gastric, or the substance of the spinal marrow, near the points of their division respectively. Have not these experiments proved, without one word of argument, the existence of other two incident nerves possess¬ ing the special excito-motory property ? Do you not perceive the beginnings of the System of incident excitor nerves to which I have alluded ? Do you not further perceive that these nerves are not only excitors of muscular action, but, in the case last detailed, of the act of inspiration ? And do you not now plainly see the application of the “ vis motoriaf the “ excitability,” and of the System of incident nerves, through the medium of which it acts, to Physiology ? This System of nerves is further displayed in this Dia¬ gram and Table, and the extensive Class of functions, for such it is, of which it is the Anatomy, is displayed in this Table. Un?til the period of my researches, I believe that the pure motor power of the nervous system had never been applied to physiology—that the idea of an incident motor nerve did not exist; and, consequently, that the System of such nerves, and the special Physiology of this system, was totally un¬ known. Why do I mention these things ? Because it has been eagerly attempted to transfer the credit of what I have done to others, and especially to Prochaska on the one hand, and to M. Flourens on the other. But I will ask you, whether the idea of an incident motor nerve exists in either of these authors ? and, if not, whether the system of such nerves, with their physiology, can exist in them. In fact, Prochaska goes no further than Whytt; he alludes to a reflex action, as seen in the very obvious pathological phenomena of sneezing, coughing, &c. and then all is confusion ; for with these phe¬ nomena are associated, as of a similar character, the motion of the arm to the head said to take place in apoplexy ! the motion of the eye-lids when a person approaches your eye with a finger ! the motion of the heart! of the intestines ! &c. It is impossible to argue with persons of such confusion of