CHAPTER III.

"The epigastric nervous centre is the chief lever of the vital forces."-GALEN.

ON THE OVARIAN NISUS.

I HAVE investigated some of the conditions of the periodical currents of fluids in woman; every current testifies a moving force, and although a better idea of the nature of the ovarian nisus will hereafter be formed by its effects, still I cannot proceed without inquiring into its analogies, particularly as this force is the essential part of menstruation, being often shown by nervous symptoms unaccompanied by any flow. It has, moreover, been ascertained that the ovary is the focus and starting-point of this force. Now, every force in the human body has for substratum a nervous organization; it is, therefore, in the nerves of the ovaria that this force must reside. These nerves come from the solar plexus, and are part of the ganglionic nervous system, to which must be ascribed the ripening of the germs in the ovary. This is an act of vegetative life, for by pressing either ovary we may rupture its vesicles, but not detach its ovules, which is done by the ovary after preliminary absorption of its dense covering. It must be, moreover, borne in mind, that paralysis of the cerebro-spinal nerves has not prevented the process of ovulation, so that it must be under the influence of the ganglionic nerves; or, in other words, nutrition and generation are subserved by the same system of nerves, on the individual peculiarities of which depend alike the differences. of nutrition and menstruation in each individual. Thus, the Hungarian sisters were united at the lower part of the back, and, dying at the age of 22, the abdominal vessels of both were united at the loins, so they had the same blood in their vessels. The uterine function, however, differed as to the period and quantity of the secretion. The blood was the same, but the ganglionic nervous influence was different.

The just appreciation of the menstrual force, and of the causes and nature of many diseases of women, can only be gathered from a knowledge of the functions of that system of nerves.

Little is known about the ganglionic nervous system, and that little is often merely classed amongst the curiosities of medical literature. I might refer the reader to the authors I shall soon quote, and to what I have written upon this subject in my work On the Change of Life; but the healthy and morbid manifestations of the ganglionic system play too important a part in the physiology and diseases of women for the consideration of this system to be omitted from this work.

The difference of size in the two sexes depends on the greater development of the organs of animal life in the male, and as the nerves and ganglia of the ganglionic system in the trunk are in relation with the organs of vegetative life, these nerves and ganglia are proportionally larger in women; physiology and pathology likewise show that there is a greater amount of vegetative power in woman, for while the proper development of the testicles at once immutably imparts its characteristic effects to man,―the noblest of created beings,— in woman, the corresponding organs react more strongly on her system during the entire reproductive period of life, subjecting it to incessant vicissitudes of health and disease. The greater influence of the ovary on woman, the preponderance of the ganglionic system in the female, seems a natural consequence of the perpetuation of the race being principally confided to her, and it appears sufficient to explain the fact of woman being at all ages endowed with a greater amount of vital tenacity than man, and her life being prolonged to a greater length.

From the experiments and writings of the celebrated anatomist Winslow, and those of Bichat, Reil, Broussais, Lobstein, Wilson, Philips, and Brown-Séquard, it has been clearly proved,

1st. That the ganglionic nervous system is vaso-motor, and presides over the functions of the heart and arterial circulation.

2nd. That it is intimately connected with nutrition, with

the building up and the pulling to pieces of the human body, otherwise its minute filaments could not justly be compared by Scarpa to a spider's web, enveloping in its inextricable mazes the arterial system down to the minutest subdivisions, into which some of their ramifications are so incorporated, that Soemmering and Berends called them nervi vasculares. 3rd. That it is the nervous link by which the principal viscera of the body consent to unity of action.

4th. That it is an independent system, for while it exists alone in the lower animals, it co-exists with the cerebrospinal system in the higher, though without being modelled after its plan, and with such little dependence upon it that the ganglionic nervous system is found fully developed in infants, and most perfect in idiots.

5th. That it is constantly reacted upon by emotional impressions emanating from the brain.

6th. That it constantly reacts upon the cerebro-spinal system; in health imparting a sense of strength without any sensation referable to the organs of vegetative life; but should they be diseased, then the ganglionic nervous system convinces the brain that it is intimately associated with a stomach, a liver, or a womb.

7th. That this ganglionic nervous system has a centre of action-the solar plexus, called by Wrisberg and Lobstein the cerebrum abdominale.

For the study of these propositions, I refer to the authors mentioned, and shall merely quote from my work On the Change of Life, what is necessary for the better comprehension of my views.

Brachet found that the solar plexus and semilunar ganglion of a calf might be repeatedly pricked with a scalpel, without the animal giving any sign of pain, though if he waited until the ganglion appeared inflamed and then pricked it, the animal was evidently hurt. He then pricked and pinched the various spinal nerves leading to the semilunar ganglion and solar plexus, and the animal gave signs of pain; but when he had cut through several of these nervous filaments, and irritated the portions no longer in communication with the ganglia, no distressing symptoms were exhibited. In an experiment, similarly conducted on another calf,

Brachet waited until inflammation had developed pain in the semilunar ganglion, when he cut through all the nervous filaments leading to the ganglion, and it could then be pricked without the animal evincing any signs of suffering; he then concluded that, in their healthy condition, the semilunar ganglion and plexus give no cerebral sensation, and that in an inflamed state they are the seat of pain, only on account of the spinal nerves which go to the ganglion, and transmit its morbid sensations to the brain. Thus it seems that the ganglionic nerves transmit their morbid impressions to their ganglia, and it is in these ganglia that the spinal nerves come and fetch morbid sensations, and transmit the knowledge of them to the brain, so that the mind becomes conscious of an order of sensations, of which, under ordinary circumstances, it is not destined to take cognizance. Valentin and Dr. Handfield Jones seem to have arrived at similar conclusions, which are as applicable to neuralgic as to inflammatory pain. A blow at the pit of the stomach does not kill by inflammation, but by a neuralgic shock, so suddenly intense, that the laws of pugilism forbid "to hit under the belt." The blow may, however, be so graduated as to determine corresponding shades of neuralgia and of leipothymia, while, in nightmare, anomalous epigastric symptoms are produced by indigestion. The anguish of vomiting is partly due to the more or less intense concussion of the epigastric ganglia, which explains the intense debility it causes, and the not unfrequent deaths that occur when,-as on board ship,-it could not be checked. Besides the capability of being stunned by a blow externally applied, the great ganglia are susceptible of receiving shocks from centric causes spontaneously evolved in the system. "Miseros vidi ægrotos," says Lobstein, "qui, vix somno dediti, subitò fuerunt expergefacti atque valido et quasi electrico ictu territi, ab epigastrio proficiscente; crudele phenomenon, quod per plurimum mensium spatium duraverat." Other authors have noticed the same strange sensation; but independently of these rare occurrences, it will be obvious to the pathologist, that the ganglionic centre is constantly receiving, from causes spontaneously arising in the frame, milder shocks, which determine the varied forms and degrees of cardialgia.

This occurs to both sexes during convalescence, in consequence of the undue strain put on the ganglionic system for the increased impulse required by nutrition; in the presence of worms, when the expansions of ganglionic nerves are peculiarly susceptible of being irritated; in agues, of which the ganglionic system is the prime motor; in hæmorrhoidal and other flows, when indiscreetly stopped by cold water; in chlorosis, hypochondriasis, and in the earliest stages of insanity, before the ganglionic, are cast into shade by the magnitude of cerebral symptoms. But the greatest and most frequent cause of disturbance of the ganglionic centres, is the strong reaction of the reproductive organs: puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, lactation, and cessation, almost always cause slight forms of cardialgia, and sometimes the severest, leading to suicide and to the varied forms of insanity. Woman suffers more than man, for her ganglionic nervous system is doubly taxed, for self-nutrition, and that of the race, and if she be susceptible of so often "tumbling to pieces," and of being again knitted firmly together, it is because her ganglionic nervous system has been endowed with extraordinary powers for good or for evil; but man does not escape. Schmidtmann, who paid so much attention to nervous affections, says, and I confirm the correctness of the remark, "whenever a young man consults me for cardialgia, I suspect onanism." Cardialgia, under varied forms, is frequently observed in spermatorrhoea, and explains why some commit suicide, and many become hypochondriacs. The debauchee and the roué are frequently at a loss for terms to express the annoyance of their sufferings at the pit of the stomach. It is perfectly incomprehensible that so much vital force for good or for evil should be centralized in little irregular lumps of nervous matter, and in sundry tangled skeins of nerves, the topography of which, like that of the polar regions, is differently mapped out by successive observers; but though incomprehensible, it is no less certain that these knots of nervous matter, and these tangled skeins of nerves, are indissolubly connected with the supreme power which guides the processes of healthy or diseased nutrition and of generation, which is but another mode of nutrition. This is proved by the writings of Winslow, Bichat, Reil, Wilson,