Physiology and pathology of the sympathetic system of nerves / by A. Eulenburg and P. Guttmann ; tr. by A. Napier.

  • Eulenburg, Albert, 1840-1917.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiology and pathology of the sympathetic system of nerves / by A. Eulenburg and P. Guttmann ; tr. by A. Napier. 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.

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    of the splanchnic, Bernard's puncture does not cause diabetes. The further statements of Cyon and Aladoff are corroborative of these. They found that division of the trunk of the sympathetic between the tenth and twelfth ribs in dogs almost never produces diabetes; and further, that when this section has been performed, division of the lowest cervical and uppermost thoracic ganglia is no longer followed by diabetes. When, on the other hand, the splanchnic or the trunk of the sympathetic is divided only after the ce puncture (pricking the floor of the fourth ventricle with a needle), or after wounding the ganglia just mentioned, the artificial diabetes remains. A solution of these apparent contradictions is possible only on the ground that certain nerves, paralysis of which hinders the occurrence of diabetes in some way, enter the trunk of the sympathetic below the first thoracic ganglion. Thus there must be two sorts of fibres in the lower part of the sympathetic and in the splanchnic, of which the one variety (those coming from the first thoracic ganglion, hepatic vasomotor nerves), when paralysed, produces diabetes; while the other, emerging* from the spinal cord at a lower level, prevents diabetes when paralysed. These latter fibres are merely, as Cyon and Aladoff have shown to be very probable, the vasomotor fibres of other organs. In order to the production of diabetes there must be a greater flow of blood through the dilated hepatic vessels, as, in fact, occurs in paralysis of the vaso- motor nerves of the liver, contained in the annulus Vieus- senii. After division of the lower part of the sympathetic, or of the splanchnic, there is an accumulation of blood in the other organs, whereby the augmentation of the quantity of blood in the liver in consequence of the simultaneous para- lysis of its vasomotor nerves is reduced to a minimum. If, on the other hand, by preliminary puncture, or by extir- patiun of the uppermost thoracic ganglion, dilatation of the hepatic vessels has already occurred, division of the splanch- nic cannot, at least at first, put an end to this dilatation; thus the diabetes, after this operation, lasts some time. Budge* observed increase of size and congestion of the liver also after extirpation of the semilunar plexus. This was not, however, confirmed by Adrian.f Moreover, this * Verhandlungen der Leopold. Carol. Academie, Band xix., p. 258. t Eckhard's Beitrage zur Anatomie und Physiologie, 1862, Bd. iii. p. Gl.