The sympathetic nerve : its relations to disease / by C. V. Chapin.

  • Chapin, Charles V. (Charles Value), 1856-1941.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sympathetic nerve : its relations to disease / by C. V. Chapin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    12/108 (page 6)
    This attributes to the S3nnpathetic a very great degree of inde- pendence of action. By its supporters the sj^mpathetic is re- garded as almost exchisively the centre of both motion and sen- sation, for all the vegetative organs of the body. ^ A third view considers the s^'mpathetic to be made up of fibres, having their origin in the brain and cord, and also of other fibres arising in the cells of the various ganglia. According to this view every sympathetic trunk contains both sympathetic and cerebro- spinal fibres ; but, at the same time, not all fibres arising in the ganglia are contained in sympathetic trunks ; but some of these join, and run with cerebro-spinal branches. Thus, as Quain sug- gests, we might, with great propriety, apply the term sympathetic, to all those fibres which have their origin in the ganglia and pre- side over the functions of organic life, no matter in what trunks- the}' ma}^ be found ; and the term cerebro-spinal, to all fibres having their origin in the brain and cord. The ganglia of the sj^mpathetic have branches of communica- tion with each other, and with the cerebro-spinal system, and also branches of distribution to the viscera. They are invested with a closely adherent envelope of connective tissue, continuous with the sheath of the nerve trunks, and sending^ septa, supporting the blood vessels, into the interior of the gan- glia. To the naked eye they present, on section, simpl}'^ reddish, gray masses traversed by white nerve fibres. This gray matter is shown, b^^ the microscope, to consist of nerve fibres and cells. These cells, usually, have only one or two prolongations, and are small in size — varj-ing from ^gVo ^^ t^Vt of an inch in diameter, Dalton (1), but occasionally larger multi- polar cells are found, Schultz. The cells are enclosed in a capsKile, formed of a transparent membrane, with nuclei, and, apparentl}^ continuous with the primitive sheaths of the nerves, Schultz, Key and Retzius (2). It is possible that the nuclei belong to epithelial cells lining a transparent membrane. The cell itself consists of dark granular matter, containing a clear nucleus and nucleolus. The fibres, arising from the cell, maybe one or more in number ; usually two. These are described bj- Beale as arising on the sur- 1 Dalton, Human Physloloory. 2 Key and Retzius, Studien in d. Anat. d. Nerven-systems u. d. Bindgewebes.