XXVIII. On the nerves; giving an account of some experiments on their structure and functions, which lead to a new arrangement of the system

Abstract

During the general advancement of science which has lately taken place in this country, observations have been gradually accumulating in the schools of the metropolis, which prove that the department of Anatomy has not been stationary. The nervous system, hitherto the most unsatisfactory part of a physiologist's studies, has assumed a new character. The intricacies of that system have been unravelled, and the peculiar structure and functions of the individual nerves ascertained; so that the absolute confusion in which this department was involved has disappeared, and the natural and simple order has been discovered. In proceeding to give some account of these new observations, the Author of this paper had conceived, that it would be more suitable to the scientific body he had to address, to lay the subject before them in the precise manner in which it first presented itself to his enquiries, and to detail his observations and experiments in the succession in which they were made; but he has been persuaded by some of the Members of this Society to change that form, and to present the subject in the manner to which he has been accustomed, in teaching these doctrines; and they were pleased to say, that in this way, a new subject would be more readily comprehended.