To Prove the Identity of the Organic Nervous System of the Invertebrata and the Organic Nervous System of Man.

The next matter should be to determine what division of the nervous system in the Vertebrata is identical with, or discharges the same functions as, the nervous system of the Invertebrata.

All animals require for the continuance of life the ingestion of food, or nutriment, into the stomach. Therefore, in all animals there must be provision made for the function of deglutition, and such is found to exist in all animals.

It is ev

a city, and called the name thereof by the name of his son, HENOCH." ident that when MOSES said he built a city, he meant himself and his offspring, and his offspring's offspring, built a city, which they could easily do during his life, when men lived to be upward of 900 years old. A man gets married at the age of 50 years, and is father of a son or daughter each year up to the age of 450; he lives fifty years after the birth of his last child, or till he is 500 years old. His sons and daughters marry at the ages of 50 and 51 years, and each couple has a son or daughter each year up to the time of the father's death, viz., 500 years. Each couple of the third generation marry at the ages of 50 and 51 years, and have children up to the time of the father's death. Each generation, down to the last, get married at the ages above mentioned, and have children up to the father's death. That being the case, what is the number of the progenitor's offspring at the time of his death? Seven thousand, five hundred and ninety millions, six hundred and forty-three thousand, six hundred and fifty-one.

Supposing that ninety-nine out of each hundred died, there would yet remain seventy-six millions, six hundred and seventy-three thousand, one hundred and sixty-eight.

It would appear an absurdity to state that one man built a city, or that MoSES intended saying so; so, in like manner, it is not necessary to say that the creation was made in six consecutive days, or that Moses intended conveying that idea. His saying the evening and the morning was the first day, simply meant that all things specified in the text were made in the time that elapsed between the evening and the morning of each day. On reference to the 5th chapter, verse 31, of Genesis, it will be admitted that persons 450 years old were not too old to propagate the species. "And all the days of LAMECH came to seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died. And NOE, when he was five hundred years old, begat SEM, CHAM, and JAPHETH." Without further entering into a discussion of what many may suppose is foreign to the present investigation, I cannot help stating that geology, physiology, as well as the construction a person is entitled to put on the first chapter of Genesis after reading the other chapters of Genesis, written by MOSES, fully establish the truth of the record of the creation, and confirm the order in which the things were created. It is well to establish the truths of the Bible, when opportunities offer.

The nervous rings surrounding the mouths of the lowest classes of animals, such as the boroe pileus, the star-fish, the œsophageal ganglions found in the mollusca, preside over the function of deglutition in the Invertebrata.

The location, the position, the distribution of the nerves, point out the spheno-palatine ganglion as presiding over the function of deglutition in the Vertebrata.

It will be recollected that this is one of the organic ganglia. I will now quote Mr. HARRISON's description of the spheno-palatine ganglion. "It is a small, triangular, reddish substance. It is imbedded in fat, surrounded by branches of the internal maxillary artery, and is situated on the external side of the nasal plate of the palate-bone, which separates it from the cavity of the nose, behind the tuberosity of the superior maxillary bone, and in front of the pterygoid processes. Three sets of branches pass from the ganglion: an inferior, internal, and a posterior.

"First, the inferior, or palatine nerves, descend in the bony canal of that name; send through the canal some small twigs to the spongy bones, and near the palatine separate into three filaments; an anterior, middle, and posterior. The anterior is the largest, and passes forward in a groove within the alveoli, and above the mucous membrane, supplying the latter, the bone and teeth, and finally enters the foramen incisivum by a very fine filament, which communicates with the nerves in the septum narum.

"The middle and posterior filaments of the palatine nerves are distributed to the amygdalæ, the soft palate, and uvula. The posterior usually descends through the osseous canal of the pterygoid portion of the palate-bone. The internal branch of the spheno-palatine nerve is very short, passes through the spheno-palatine hole to the upper and back part of the nose, and divides into five or six branches. The most important of these pass immediately into the mucous membrane covering the superior and middle spongy bones; one branch, called the nasopalatine nerve of Cotunius, passes beneath the sphenoidal sinus, across the root of the nose, and descends obliquely forward, along the septum nasi, as far as the foramen incisivum, where it communicates with the interior palatine branches, and where some anatomists describe a small ganglion (naso-palatine)

to exist. This, however, in the human subject, can seldom be distinguished from the surrounding fat and vessels.

"The third, or posterior branch of the ganglion, is the vidian, or superior petrosal nerve; this passes backward through the vidian canal, above the pterygoid plate, and sends some small filaments into the sphenoidal sinuses; it there perforates the cartilaginous substance that closes the foramen lacerum anterius, enters the cranium, and divides into branches-an inferior and posterior. The inferior, or carotid branch, enters the cavernous sinus, and joins the plexus formed around the artery, by the ascending branches of the superior cervical ganglion of the sympathetic. The superior, or petrosal branch, runs backward and outward, beneath the dura mater and Casserian ganglion, in a groove on the petrous bone, enters the hiatus Fallopii in the bone, and becomes attached to the portio dura nerve-the part of function being marked by a small gangliform expansion. The vidian nerve accompanies the portio dura as far as the back part of the tympanum; it then leaves it, receives the name of chorda tympani, and enters the tympanum a little below the pyramid; invested by mucous membrane, it now proceeds forward, between the long leg of the incus and the handle of the malleus to the latter it is firmly connected; it then escapes by a canal, which appears near the internal extremity of the glenoid fissure; it next runs downward, inward, and forward, joins the gustatory nerve, and continues attached to it as far as the submaxillary gland; it now leaves the gustatory nerve, and unites with filaments from it in the submaxillary ganglion, which is situated near the posterior edge of the submaxillary gland, and from which a number of filaments proceed; these form a plexus, which supplies the gland."

Proofs from Comparative Anatomy that the Esophageal Ganglion of the Invertebrata is identical with the Spheno-Palatine Ganglion of the Vertebrata.

In the Ruminantia, the spheno-palatine ganglia are very large; they are double the size in a sheep, when compared with a carnivorous animal of similar dimensions. I presume it is

unnecessary to specify (the mode of mastication in these animals is quite different from the carnivorous) or to discuss the reasons why the spheno-palatine should be so large in the former, as reflection will at once suggest the answer.

Again, it will be recollected that a snail, having a supra-cesophageal ganglion, has the power of regurgitation.

In fact, it can swallow its oral apparatus, and again regurgitate it. In this respect, it resembles the Ruminantia. It is a remarkable fact that several of the Gastropoda, to which the snail belongs, have stomachs similar to the Ruminantia.

Pathological Proofs

That the Spheno-Palatine Ganglion presides over the Function of selecting proper Food, Mastication, Salivary Secretion, Deglutition, as well as gives the Sensation of Thirst, and is identical with the Esophageal Ganglion of the Invertebrata.

Hydrophobia.

In one, two, three, or four months-sometimes a longer period elapses a person who has been bitten by a rabid animal will observe some change in the appearance of the part where the wound was inflicted; either pain, redness, or discoloration of the skin will attract his attention. After some time, the well-known symptoms which characterize hydrophobia will present themselves. The great thirst, with the apprehension of swallowing fluids the frightful spasm of the glottis, with all the muscles of deglutition, on attempting to swallow-the presence of viscid saliva, which harasses the patient, and which he frequently attempts to spit out-the snapping with the teeththe rolling of the eyeballs-the paroxysm of strangulation, brought on by hearing water poured from one vessel into another-the paroxysm brought on by looking into a mirrorsometimes the bad odor that annoys the patient, as well as the sudden death of the patient—all demonstrate that the sphenopalatine ganglion is in a morbid state of irritation. The connection and distribution of the nerves of the spheno-palatine ganglion prove conclusively the truth of this affirmation.

Explanation of the Symptoms.

The spheno-palatine ganglion is connected with the superior division of the fifth nerve, (the superior maxillary nerve.) It is connected with the superior cervical ganglion. The sphenopalatine ganglion is connected with the ear by the vidian nerve, and with the submaxillary gland by the chorda tympani nerve. The superior cervical ganglion is connected with the lenticular ganglion by a branch of communication. The spheno-palatine ganglion sends nerves to the muscles concerned in deglutition; sends nerves to the arytenoid muscle; hence the spasm of the muscles can be accounted for. The rolling of the eyes can be accounted for by recollecting the inferior oblique muscle is supplied with a nerve from the lenticular ganglion; the alternate relaxation and contraction of these muscles (inferior oblique) cause the rolling of the eyes. The connection of the vidian nerve with the ear accounts for the bad consequences resulting from certain sounds. The secretion of the viscid saliva is accounted for by the connection of the chorda tympani with the submaxillary gland; the snapping with the teeth is accounted for by the connection of the dental nerves with the spheno-palatine ganglion, through the connection of the superior maxillary nerve, from which the dental nerves take their origin. The sudden dissolution of the patient is caused by spasm of the glottis; the non-admission of air into the lungs accounts for the cause of death-namely, the want of oxygen to combine with the organic nervous glands.

As a further proof that the spheno-palatine ganglion is the organ morbidly affected when hydrophobia is present, it is almost unnecessary to remark, that the saliva in a rabid animal is secreted under the influence of the spheno-palatine ganglion, through the operation of the chorda tympani division of the vidian nerve, which takes its origin from the posterior part of the spheno-palatine ganglion.

Venomous Reptiles.

When a venomous reptile wishes to inflict a deadly wound, it communicates its wishes to the spheno-palatine ganglion, through the superior maxillary division of the fifth nerve; and