Enteric Nervous System

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

There are actually four autonomic nervous systems …

1) Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)

2) Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS)

3) Enteric Nervous System (ENS)

4) Subcutaneous Nervous System (SCNS)

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According to Wikipedia (last updated Oct. 12, 2020) …

“It [enteric nervous system] is capable of acting independently of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, although it may be influenced by them. The ENS is also called the second brain.”

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John Harvey Kellogg (The Itinerary of a Breakfast, 1819) wrote …

“The eminent English anatomist Keith has shown that the movements of the stomach and intestines are controlled by a mechanism much the same as that which controls the heart.”

According to the same source …

“The intestinal movements are, moreover, directed with such evident purpose and precision as almost to suggest that the food tube is an independent and intelligent creature, possessing its own brain and will and ever performing its functions as a faithful body-servant.

“The movements of the intestine are so much like those which one sees executed by a moving snake, that a noted writer very naturally referred to his food tube as his ‘serpent,’ and certain movements of the colon are referred to in medical literature as snakelike movements.

“When the nerves of an arm, a leg, or almost any other organ of the body, are severed, so that connection with the brain or spinal cord is cut off, the organ is at once paralyzed. It is as powerless to act as though it were actually separated from the body. This is by no means the case with the food canal. An experiment made by Professor Roger, of Paris, will illustrate this. A stick pin was placed in the intestine of an animal, the point being directed downward. At once a series of most interesting movements began. As the point of the pin began to penetrate the wall of the intestine, the tissues began to thicken, thus preventing an immediate puncture.

“At the same time, a fold of the intestine pushed up beneath the head of the pin and pushed it over, so that in a short time the pin was completely reversed, the head being directed down stream in the intestine, and by the contraction of the bowel pushed along until it was discharged from the body. This wonderful action was seen to take place in the intestine, even after all the nerves connecting the intestine with the brain had been severed.”

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Did you hear about the constipated accountant?

He couldn’t budget.

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