4-16 journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



of the spinal V tract and the median funicular nucleus there are 

 scattered medullated fibers and some more compact fascicles. 

 These are the efferent tracts of secondary and tertiary fibers from 

 these nuclei. They accumulate at intervals and, accompanied by 

 strong unmedullated bands, pass downward. Some enter the adja- 

 cent formatio reticularis, others cross to the opposite side through 

 both the dorsal and the ventral commissures, while still others pass 

 ventrad to make direct connections with the ventral cornu. 



The lateral funicular nucleus is a crescentic area enveloping the 

 dorso-lateral border of the medulla oblongata in the cephalic part 

 of the funicular region, attaining its greatest dimensions laterally 

 of the extreme caudal end of the vagal lobe (Fig. 5). Cells of this 

 nucleus are shown in Figs. 13, 14 and 15. It is smaller in Amei- 

 urus than in some of the other teleosts examined. It is continu- 

 ous dorsally with the median nucleus and seems to be an outgrowth 

 from the latter in the only direction in which enlargement was pos- 

 sible. That is, the funicular nucleus, having been prevented from 

 further enlargement laterally by the spinal V tract and its nucleus, 

 reached the dorsal surface of the medulla oblongata and then 

 spread out laterally over the outer surface of the spinal V tract. It 

 is improbable, however, that the peculiar relations of the lateral 

 funicular nucleus are determined wholly by mechanical factors. 

 By far the greater part of the descending secondary gustatory tract 

 from the facial lobe ends in this nucleus and it might almost be 

 termed an inferior secondary gustatory nucleus, as in fact I did in 

 my paper on the gustatory paths ('05); for this connection is the 

 most distinctive feature of the nucleus, and gives to it its character 

 as the most important center of correlation between gustatory and 

 tactile stimuli. But in view of the way in which the tactile fibers 

 are distributed to the nuclei of this region and in particular the 

 liberal distribution of the secondary gustatory fibers to the median 

 funicular nuclei and probably also to the underlying formatio retic- 

 ularis, it would appear that this whole somatic area is the field 

 of discharge of the descending gustatory fibers from the facial lobe. 

 No special part of this field can then be properly called the inferior 

 secondary gustatory nucleus; and since the commissural nucleus of 

 Cajal may be in part a terminus of secondary gustatory fibers 

 from the vagal lobe (though it is more probable that the secondary 

 vagus tracts which reach this nucleus are general visceral, not 

 gustatory), I have in this paper avoided the term inferior second- 



