III. Preliminary account of an inquiry into the functions of the visceral nerves, with special reference to the so-called 'inhibitory system'. By Joseph Lister, Esq., F. R. C. S. Eng. & Edin., Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh; in a letter to Dr. Sharpey, Sec. R. S. Communicated by Dr. Sharpey

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My Dear Sir,—The fact that the irritation of visceral nerves sometimes causes arrest of the movements of organs supplied by them, as shown by Edward Weber’s experiment of stopping the action of the heart by stimulating the vagus, and by Pflüger’s more recent observation that the application of galvanism to the splanchnic nerves produces quiescence of the small intestines, appears to me to have an intimate bearing upon the question how inflammation is developed through the medium of the nervous system at a distance from an irritated part; and as the nature of the inflammatory process has lately engaged my especial attention, I have been led to make an experimental inquiry into this “inhibiting” agency, the true interpretation of which is, as you are aware, still I now propose to state the principal results at which I have arrived, reserving further details for a more extended communication which I hope soon to offer to the Royal Society. The view which has been advocated by Pfliiger, and I believe very generally accepted, viz. that there is a certain set of nerve-fibres, the so-called ‘‘inhibitory system of nerves” (Hemmungs Nervensystem), whose sole function is to arrest or diminish action, seemed to me from the first a very startling innovation in physiology; and you may possibly recollect my mentioning to you in conversation, when in London last Christmas, my suspicion that the phenomena in question were merely the effect of excessive action in nerves possessed of the functions usually attributed to them. On further reflection upon the subject, the consideration of the contraction produced in the arteries of the frog’s foot by a very mild stimulus, as compared with the relaxation of the vessels caused by stronger irritants acting through the same nerves, confirmed my previous notions. For I could hardly doubt that the cause of the quiescence of the heart or intestines on irritation of the vagus or splanchnic nerves was analogous to that of arterial dilatation in the web, and that, provided a sufficiently mild stimulus were applied to the so-called “inhibitory nerves,” increased action of the viscera would occur, corresponding to the vascular constriction.

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