THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CRANIAL NERVES 

 OF VERTEBRATES.(') 



Professor C. von Kupffer. 



Gentlemen : 



There is scarcely need of the assurance that I do not stand 

 before you with the pretense of presenting the comprehensive 

 subject of my report with perfect sj'mmetry on all sides. Tliat 

 would only be possible if the development of the vertebrate 

 head as a whole could receive thorough treatment at the same 

 time. The works which relate to the cranial nerves are still 

 issuing, and it is difficult to predict, up to the present, how 

 the course of these works will influence the solution of the 

 problem of the vertebrate head. 



In consideration of the time here allotted to such a report, 

 I limit my remarks to a condensed summary of the present 

 trend and results of research in relation solely to the morpho- 

 geny of the cranial nerves, apart from their histogeny and 

 from the remaining phases of the problem of the head. 



So much may be said in advance: that in the formation of 

 the vertebrate head very remarkable reductions and fusions 

 of endodermal and mesodermal parts, and, in connection 

 therewith, of the peripheral nervous system, extending in 

 direction from before backwards, have occurred. And, 

 further, I venture to assert that, besides a branchial system 



I Report read at the meeting of the Anatomical Society at its fifth annual session, at 

 Munich, May i8, i8qi. Translated for this journal, from advance sheets, by Oliver S. 

 Strong, Fellow in Biology in Columbia University. 



