The elements of anatomy / By Jones Quain.

  • Quain, Jones, 1796-1865
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of anatomy / By Jones Quain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    134/918 (page 94)
    and two internal, the former being more easily recognised than the latter; and, in all, they observe a number of glo- bules placed in regular lines, thus identifying their compo- sition with that of the brain: but this does not accord with the researches of other physiologists. De Blainville denies altogether the existence of globules in the nerves, nor does he admit them to contain even the irregular corpuscles or gra- nules which are seen in the central masses. The modes of dividing and arranging the parts of this complex structure, suggested by different writers, appear to have been adopted in the first instance in conformity with the opinions which they entertained of its functions and pro- perties. According to Galen, the brain should be considered as the central or fundamental part; Bartholin assigned that rank to the spinal cord. Most anatomists, in times past, divided the system into two parts, viz. the brain and spinal cord, or the central mass (axe cerebro-spinal), and the nerves as prolongations from it. Bichat, guided by his peculiar views of the vital phenomena, contended for the existence of two sorts of nervous influence; one being derived from the apparatus appropriated to animal life, viz. the spinal cord, brain, and cerebellum, and the nerves which are connected with them; the other, from the two knotted cords which lie along the spine, which he called the nerves of organic or vegetative life, but which are generally known as the sympa- thetic or trisplanchnic nerves. Dr. Gall extends the princi- ple of subdivision much farther than his predecessors had done; his previous inquiry into the nature and manifestations of the mental faculties having led him to observe their differ- ent modifications in various tribes of animals, as well as in individuals of the same species, and conceiving them to be so many distinct powers, which necessarily require distinct material instruments, — he concluded that each, when in ac- tion, works by a distinct portion of cerebral substance, which may be considered as its seat and its organ. In this view of the subject, the nervous system appears to be divisible into as many parts as there are functions to be performed, and faculties to be exercised, each part constituting a special apparatus or organ, as follows:—1. the spinal cord and the double-rooted nerves connected with it, forming the apparatus of sensation and voluntary motion ; 2. the medulla oblongata