Abstract
THE afferent nervous pathways from abdominal viscera have been studied by McSwiney and his co-workers by means of the changes in pupil diameter induced by stimuli such as weak faradic shocks applied to the central end of the cut splanchnic nerve (Bain et al.1), or to the central end of the cut abdominal vagus nerve (Harper et al.2). Investigations, by oscillographic methods, of the afferent nervous activity in the frog's viscera have been carried put by Tower3, and later confirmed by Burns4. It was shown that the gut and mesentery gave rise to fast nerve impulses in the sympathetic rami in response to light touch. These impulses are not dissimilar to those in cutaneous sensory nerves in response to light touch on the frog's skin. On examining the afferent nervous mechanism in visceral nerves of the cat and rabbit, it has now been shown that a somewhat similar mechanism sensitive to light touch is present. Thus in response to light touch on the gut or the mesentery, trains of impulses of a fast type can be shown to ascend in the small nerve trunks which run, in company with blood vessels, across the mesentery from its intestinal attachment towards the mesenteric root. The exact distribution of this tactile sensibility and the function of the cat's mesenteric Paccinian corpuscles are being investigated.
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References
Bain, W. A., Irving, J. T., and McSwiney, B. A., J. Physiol., 84, 323 (1935).
Harper, A. A., McSwiney, B. A., and Suffolk, S. F., J. Physiol., 85, 267 (1935).
Tower, S. S., J. Physiol., 78, 225 (1933).
Burns, W., J. Physiol., 100, 11P (1941).
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BURNS, W. Afferent Innervation of Mammalian Abdominal Viscera. Nature 149, 221 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149221a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149221a0
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