willard: cranial nerves of anolis carolinensis. 59 



The anterior ramus (lab. if. md.) is much the larger of the two 

 and appears in the sections to be purely cutaneous sensory. It 

 passes into the cavity of the complementare bone (Plate 5, fig. 15) 

 to run cephalad a little distance and then out through a foramen 

 on the dorsal side of this bone. It passes forward along the side of 

 the mandible to innervate the integumentary portion of the lower 

 lip for about two thirds of its length (Plates 4, 5, figs. 10-15), the 

 anterior part of the labial region being cared for by branches from the 

 alveolar ramus (Plates 2, 3, 4, figs. 5, 6, 8, 9, lab. if. ind.). 



Ill, 2. Ramus alveolaris inferior. This (alv. if.) is the continuation 

 of the mandibular ramus into the lower jaw. It takes a position on 

 the dorsal side of Meckel's cartilage (crt. Mkl.) where this is still 

 exposed (Plate 5, fig. 15), and when the membrane bones of the 

 mandible close around the cartilage they include both this nerve and 

 the chorda tympani. The latter is at first ventral to the alveolaris, 

 but gradually assumes a more median position and finally takes up 

 the medio-dorsal part of the cross section of the combined nerves 

 (Plate 5, figs. 13-15, ah. if. and cd. tym.). The two bundles are easily 

 distinguishable up to the place where the first branches are gi\-en off. 

 The alveolaris gives off several branches at a level with the angle of 

 the mouth. 



(a) A small branch, not shown in the figures, is given off from the 

 dorsal side of the main ramus at the line of separation between the 

 fine fibers of chorda tympani and the coarser ones of the alveolaris. 

 It contains the coarser, well-medullated fibers, not more than ten 

 or twelve in number. This appears to be a constant structure, but 

 its distribution and its function remain undetermined. There is 

 nothing in the nature of its fibers to indicate that it is viscero-sensory 

 or sympathetic, yet it cannot be followed to any peripheral structure; 

 the fibers separate in the interosseous tissues of the jaw and cannot 

 be traced outside. It is recurrent in its course, passing caudad and 

 dorsad between the outer dentale and the enclosed complementare 

 and is lost on the epitheliod osteoblastic layer betweSn the dentale 

 and coronoideum. Its course continued a little farther caudad would 

 bring it to the lateral side of the coronoideum, to the place of inser- 

 tion of a part of the m. pterygoideus, but such a distribution was not 

 established. Some of the fibers passing out in this nerve appear to 

 be the coarser ones originally carried by the corda tympani. 



(b) Opposite the point where (a) is given off a ventral mixed branch 

 (mf/.2) leaves the ramus alveolaris. In passing cephalad it circles 

 Meckel's cartilage swinging down the lateral side and up the median 



