In 1901, Christian Shiler [294] published an article in which he discussed the connection between the nervous and vascular systems. He wrote: “In muscular and glandular tissues—and perhaps throughout the body: there is a vast peripheral nervous, plexus belonging to the capillary blood-vessels. These nerves of the capillaries, which may perhaps be regarded as nutritive nerves, regulate the production and transudation of the lymph, and are concerned in the mechanism of glandular secretion. They may influence, through their connections with the vasomotor nerves on the arteries and veins, the blood supply to a part.” He continues: “Lastly, if the nerves surrounding a capillary are traced towards the center, they can be seen to pass into the plexus surrounding the larger vessels. Very frequently two fibers can be found running on the walls of the capillaries, and if one compares the nerve supply of striped muscle with that of the capillaries it can be seen that the latter are far more richly supplied with nerves than is striped muscle”; and finally: “What is the significance of these nerves of the capillaries, what is their function? Although I am not so fortunate as to have at my command a laboratory in which I could experiment on these nerves, yet if we take into consideration the histological facts together with certain clinical observations and physiological experiments which have been made on these nerves, although without any accurate anatomical knowledge about them, we have, I think, satisfactory evidence and scientific support for the hypothesis which I shall here state briefly: These nerves, so intimately connected with the capillaries, influence the protoplasm of their walls in such a way that, according to the activity of the nerves, the transudation of lymph is increased or diminished.”
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