willard: cranial nerves of anolis carolinensis. 23 



and Phrynosoma. As to general external features and habits of life, 

 the members of this family are most diverse, as will be seen by com- 

 paring two such forms as Phrynosoma and Anolis. 



E. HISTORICAL STATEMENT. 



The Sauropsida have been quite generally neglected as regards the 

 anatomy of the nervous system in the adult, most of the descriptive 

 accounts having been written more than fifty years ago. This applies 

 equally well to other reptiles and to birds, notwithstanding the fact that 

 the latter have long since become of classic forms for embryological 

 study. Aside from the embryological studies on birds and reptiles, such 

 work as has been done has used exclusively the methods of gross anat- 

 omy and must necessarily be incomplete. It might be added that those 

 who ha^•e more recently contributed to our knowledge of the saurop- 

 sidan nervous system and who use only the methods of the older 

 anatomists increase our knowledge comparatively little. Much of 

 the older work cannot be excelled within its limitations. The modern 

 investigator should profit by modern methods and remove some of 

 these limitations. The first important account of reptilian anatomy 

 is by Bojanus ('19) in his monograph on the anatomy of the turtle. 

 This is a classic, and is still the authority for much of the subject it 

 covers. No other investigator has gone over the same field in so 

 thorough a manner. 



Vogt ('39) gives us, in his dissection of PytJion tigris, our first in- 

 formation on the cranial nerves of the Ophidia. This, however, is 

 incomplete, nerves IV, VI, and IX not being found at all, and III only 

 partially dissected out. 



Miiller ('40) about the same time discussed the nervous system of 

 reptiles in his Neurologic der Myxinoiden. Bendz ('43) made a 

 comparative study of the last four cranial nerves (or the vagus group) 

 in reptiles, including among those studied two saurians, the alligator 

 and the chamaeleon. Fischer's ('52) paper on the saurians is still 

 the most important descriptive work on the cranial nerves of reptiles. 

 He studied eleven species of lizards, two of crocodiles and the alli- 

 gator. He treated the subject quite exhaustively and made use 

 of comparative methods to establish certain homologies. Rabl- 

 Riickhard ('78) gave in his description of the alligator's central 

 nervous system, the first account of a reptilian brain. He inciden- 

 tallv mentioned the roots of the cranial nerves. Hoffmann ('79-90), 



