AUTHORS’ ABSTRACT OF THIS PAPER ISSUED 
BY THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE, MAY 11 
BRANCHES OF THE GANGLION CERVICALE 
SUPERIUS 
P. R. BILLINGSLEY AND S. W. RANSON 
From the Anatomical Labo atory of the Northwestern University Medical School! 
ONE FIGURE 
The superior cervical ganglion, which forms the cephalic end 
of the sympathetic trunk, has a greater variety of connections 
than any other ganglion in the body. Its branches run to three 
cranial nerves, three spinal nerves, several arteries, the carotid 
glomus, the thyroid, salivary, and lacrimal glands, smooth 
muscle of specialized function like that of the eye, the glands and 
blood-vessels of the mucous membrane of the head, the glands 
and blood-vessels of the skin, and the smooth muscle of the hair 
follicles. More information concerning the branches running 
to these structures is needed for a proper understanding of the 
ganglion. It is possible that fibers ascending through the 
sympathetic trunk might leave the ganglion in one of these 
branches. The connections with the cervical and cranial nerves 
bring it within the bounds of possibility that fibers from one of 
these nerves might be running to the ganglion. Neither of 
these propositions has much probability in its favor, yet they 
should be more carefully ruled out than has as yet been done. 
Our chief interest, however, concerns the myelination of the 
postganglionic fibers arising from the ganglion. 
Throughout the sympathetic nervous system a varying number 
of postganglionic fibers acquire myelin sheaths. One might with 
reason assume that there is some functional difference between 
those which are myelinated and those which are not. On that 
assumption some uniformity in the distribution of the two 
kinds would be expected. The numerous and functionally 
1 Contribution No. 56, February 15, 1918. 
367 
