May21,1886.J 45 J [Stowell. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OP THE 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 



HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 



Vol. XXIII. December, 1886. No. 124. 



Ihe Trigeminus Nerve in the Domestic Cat (Felis domestica). 

 By T. B. Stowell, Ph.D. 



{Read before the American Philosophical Society, May 21, 1SS6.) 



The importance of the study of comparative neurology may be argued 

 from the standpoint of anatomy, physiology, pathology and biology. 



The value attached to such study depends largely upon individual bias, 

 arising from education or from the end to be served by such knowledge. 



Admitting that physiology may determine or suggest anatomical rela- 

 tions which otherwise would be obscure, it is none the less true that 

 morphology must precede physiology ; knowledge of structure forms the 

 basis of knowledge of function. It may be added that human physiology, 

 so called, is almost entirely comparative physiology ; isolated experiments, 

 independent of those performed upon animals exclusive of man, cannot 

 establish law. 



The influence of the nervous system upon function, and the complexity 

 of physiological experimentation arising from this cause, are familiar to 

 every laboratory student of this subject. 



These considerations are a sufficient apology for the present "Study of 

 Nervus Trigeminus " as a contribution to comparative neurology. 



Reasons for the selection of the domestic cat have been stated elsewhere 

 (Anatomical Technology, p. 55, v. Bibliography, 33). The study of N. 

 Vagus (The Vagus Nerve in the Domestic Cat, 27) and the present study 

 cannot fail to convince that in general plan, and even in detail of structure 

 and distribution, the nervous system of the cat forms a desirable basis for 

 comparative neurology, and possesses special advantages as a preliminary 

 to anthropotomic neurology. 



The writer is not aware that any one has published the details of the 

 distribution of the trigeminus nerve in the domestic cat. He regrets that 

 he has not been able to obtain Swan's work (29), in which are described 

 the cranial nerves of the jaguar. 



He cannot reconcile the wide discrepancy between the origin, distribu- 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. S0C. XXIII. 124, 3o. PRINTED NOV. 30, 1886. 



