OBSERVATIONS UPON DIAPHRAGMATIC SENSATION

Abstract

In the cat and dog, these expts. show that nociceptive sensibility produced by stimulation of the central portion of the diaphragmatic peritoneum, depends upon afferent conduction in sensory fibers in the phrenic nerve, independent of afferent fibers in the vagus and intercostal nerves and of efferent sympathetic pathways. Observations made on man by Doctor W. K. Livingston are presented to show that pain may be referred on stimulation of the central diaphragmatic peritoneum to a completely anesthetized area of skin in the shoulder-tip region. Viscero-cutaneous reflexes are not essential for nociceptive sensation when the central diaphragmatic peritoneum is stimulated in the exptl. animal or in man.