Volume 1

A manual of diseases of the nervous system / by W.R. Gowers.

Date:
1886-1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of diseases of the nervous system / by W.R. Gowers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    bable that sucTi a relation exists between all parts of the vaso-niotor system of nerves and the cord, and that the relation obtains between each segment of the cord and the vascular nerves to the corresponding part of°the trunk and limbs. This derangement in disease may take a part in the production of the changes in nutrition, but it is probably not the sole mechanism by which these changes are produced. There is a special connection between the sympathetic and the cervical region of the spinal cord. This part contains the path to the visceral nerves that control the sugar-forming functions of the liver. The lower part of the cervical enlargement contains also an important centre which controls the sympathetic nerves for the vessels of the head and face. The path of central influence over the radiating fibres of the iris passes also from the region of the third ventricle, down the cervical cord, by the lowest cervical or first dorsal nerve, to the sympathetic, and then ascends the cervical trunk, and passes along the fibres which accompany the internal carotid artery to the ciliary ganglion. Fibres also pass from the cervical cord to the sympathetic through which the action of the heart is accelerated. Mtjtxtal Delation op the Functions op the Spinal Cokd.— It may be well to present, in the form of a table, the relation of the several functions of the cord, motor, sensory, and reflex, as far as our knowledge of these relations extends. Many points are still uncertain ; these have been, for the most part, omitted. The table does not need any detailed explanation. It is merely a comparative collection of the facts that have been stated in the preceding pages. We shall find the value of this collocation of functions when we consider the effects of transverse lesions of the cord at different levels.