XVIII. On the nervous ganglia of the uterus

Abstract

In a communication to this Society which was read on the 12th December, 1839, I described four great plexuses under the peritoneum of the gravid uterus, which had an extensive connection with the hypogastric and spermatic nerves. From their form, colour, and general distribution, and their resemblance to ganglionic plexuses of nerves, and from their branches actually coalescing with those of the hypogastric and spermatic nerves, I was induced to believe, on first discovering them, that they were nervous ganglionic plexuses, and constituted the special nervous system of the uterus. Subsequent dissections of the unimpregnated uterus, and of the gravid uterus in the third, fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth months of pregnancy, have enabled me not only to confirm the accuracy of my former observations, but to discover the important fact, that there are many large ganglia on the uterine nerves, and on those of the vagina and bladder, which enlarge with the coats, blood-vessels, nerves, and absorbents of the uterus during pregnancy, and which return after parturition to their original condition before conception takes place.