Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 974
| which proceeds to the hypogastric or pelvic plexuses from which postganglionic fibers are distributed to the pelvic viscera. Motor fibers pass to the smooth muscle of the descending colon, rectum, anus and bladder. Vasodilators are distributed to these organs and to the external genitalia, while inhibitory fibers probably pass to the smooth muscles of the external genitalia. Afferent sympathetic fibers conduct impulses from the pelvic viscera to the second, third and fourth sacral nerves. Their cells of origin lie in the spinal ganglia. |
 |
FIG. 842– Sympathetic connections of the submaxillary and superior cervical ganglia. (See enlarged image) |
The Thoracolumbar Sympathetics—The thoracolumbar sympathetic fibers arise from the dorso-lateral region of the anterior column of the gray matter of the spinal cord and pass with the anterior roots of all the thoracic and the upper two or three lumbar spinal nerves. These preganglionic fibers enter the white rami communicantes and proceed to the sympathetic trunk where many of them end in its ganglia, others pass to the prevertebral plexuses and terminate in its collateral ganglia. The postganglionic fibers have a wide distribution. The vasoconstrictor fibers to the bloodvessels of the skin of the trunk and limbs, for example, leave the spinal cord as preganglionic fibers in all the thoracic and the upper two or three lumbar spinal nerves and terminate in the ganglia of the sympathetic trunk, either in the ganglion directly connected with its ramus or in neighboring ganglia. Postganglionic fibers arise |