Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.

e base of the brain, derived from the plexuses of the vertebral, the basilar, and the carotid arteries, mingled with nerve threads connecting with the third, fourth, fifth, and the sixth pairs of cranial nerves, besides branches in the cavernous plexus, derived from some of the tipper cervical nerves, as well as tho9e connected with the pituitary body, otherwise called the cephalic ganglion. Now the nerves proceeding from this network, and accompanying the arteries of the brain, must possess the mixed endowment of their several sources. But then, whether or not the sensory properties of ganglionic, otherwise called sympa- thetic nerves, are entirely dependent on the cerebrospinal fibres contained in them, (as Valentin believes,) or whether they arise from the gray fibres which become sensitive when altered by disease, (as Yolkman believes,) is still a question. It is enough for us to know that the compound nerves of this sort seem to be capable of fulfilling almost every conceivahle function of a nerve. Whatever these peculiar nerves may effect on the chemical processes of the molecular laboratory of ultimate tissue, — whatever regulation they give to the blood vessels, — it can scarcely be doubted, says Dr. Symonds, that in many parts of the body they actually send messages of pain, if not of pleasure, to the sensoriuin ; and that they are the telegraph lines that transmit influences from the seat of emotion to the parts where they are distributed, and perhaps have a reflex function also. They only seem not to attempt to convey motor impulses from the will. That our general sense of well-being must derive its favorable tidings from the various viscera, through these " union " telegraphers, can hardly be doubted; and certainly there is no other channel through which flow the miseries and anguish of the very many visceral disorders. Seeing, then, that the ganglionic (sympathetic) nerves, so abundantly distributed through the brain and its membranes, are largely implicated in profound headaches, our next inquiry is turned to find the agencies which so act upon or through them as to cause painful feelings. Some of these are, obviously, local changes in the cerebral structure, as from sluggish circula-