General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3)Bichat, Xavier
Science
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Bichat, Xavier
Human anatomy; Human physiology
4th. The greatest number going from the ganglions in separate
filaments, interlace in the form of a plexus with those of the
contiguous ganglions, in the neighbourhood of, or upon the great
vessels. The most remarkable plexus is the solar, composed by the
innumerable branches that come from the semi-lunar; then we see the
hypogastric, the cardiac, &c. The greater number of these plexuses are
not exclusively formed by the nerves of organic life; those of the
animal give some to them also, as the par vagum furnishes an example
for the solar and the cardiac, as the sacral nerves afford another
for the hypogastric, &c. However the nerves of organic life always
predominate in these plexuses. There is only the pulmonary in which the
par vagum particularly predominates, whilst the nerves coming from the
inferior cervical ganglion are, if we may so say, but accessory.
The primitive plexuses resulting from the interlacing of the organic
nerves at their exit from the ganglions, form a mass of irregular
nerves, buried in the cellular texture, accommodated to the forms of
the neighbouring organs, and wholly different from those of animal
life, as of the brachial, the lumbar, &c.
In fact, the filaments at every instant, not only place themselves as
in the preceding ones, at the side of each other, at every change of
position; but their extremities continue; they interlace with each
other, change at every point the direction, form networks, and mix so
together, that it is not possible to distinguish any thing except a
thousand nerves, that we might say grew up under the cloth with which
we wiped the place where the plexus was found.
These organs are remarkable for their reddish or greyish colour, for
their softness, for their indistinctness, &c.; it is often difficult
to distinguish them from cellular texture. The best manner of making
them evident is to let the subject macerate for a day or two open in
the water; they whiten then sensibly, do not soften, and appear even to
increase in consistence, like the cerebral nerves in a similar case.
Besides their delicacy is such, that it is impossible to submit them
to any kind of reagents. Only I have observed that they possess in an
eminent degree the property of horny hardening, and that they do not
yield in this respect to the cerebral. This delicacy depends upon this,
that all the filaments are separate from each other, instead of being
like the preceding, collected into cords; it is this also that makes
these nerves so numerous. If all the filaments of the brachial plexus
were separated like those of the solar, they would present the same
appearance and the same number in their interlacing.
Do the primitive plexuses formed by the ganglions perform a part in the
nervous functions? are they centres to which are referred important
phenomena? What has not been said upon this subject, concerning the
solar plexus? But nothing, I believe, of all that has been advanced is
founded upon accurate observation.
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