Death and Pulmonary Alterations Following Bilateral, Cervical Vagotomy in the Fowl

INTEREST in the effects of bilateral transection of the vagus nerves dates back into antiquity. Legallois (1830), in an extensive review of the early literature, said that the loss of the voice was the only major observation reported by earlier workers until Piccolhomini, in 1586, reported that immediate death occurred following bilateral vagotomy due to cardiac arrest. Willis, in 1682 (quoted by Blainville, 1808), was the first to look specifically for other effects of vagotomy. Willis was interested in the effect of abolition of the flow of animal spirits from the brain on the action of the heart and postulated that this lack ultimately resulted in death from cardiac arrest. The first recorded vagotomy in birds was much later; Couvreur (1891) stated that Blainville (1808) was the first to publish observations on vagotomized pigeons and fowl. Other early investigators who studied the effects of bilateral vagotomy on birds included…