xxiv Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



Kingsley on the Crauial Nerves of Amphinma.^ 



This study deals primarily with the "topographical relations" of 

 the cranial nerves. It is illustrated with a figure of all the nerves of 

 the head projected upon the frontal plane and with a large and instruc- 

 tive series of drawings of sections in the transverse plane. 



The olfactory nerve is found to enter the glomeruli in two roots 

 which are fused peripherally into a common trunk. Of the eye mus- 

 cles only the oculomotorius was found. It arises, the author states, 

 "from the lower surface of the anterior part of the medulla oblongata." 

 The superior ramus of the nerve innervates the m. r. superior ; the dis- 

 tribution of the inferior ramus could not be made out. The author 

 seems to acquiesce unquestioningly in Allis' proposition that in the 

 Urodeles The superior branch of the nerve typically innervates the m. r. 

 internus also, and that in this respect the Urodela agree with the Elas" 

 mobranchii and Dipnoi rather than with the Anura, Teleostei and Gan- 

 oidei. My own researches on Amblystoma published in this Journal 

 since Professor Kingsley's paper appeared, show conclusively that in 

 some Urodeles the superior ramus of the oculomotorius innervates the 

 m. r. superior only, and that in this particular Allis' theory can not at 

 present be used with advantage in the solution of taxonomic problems 

 relating to the Amphibia. 



The r. mandibularis V. is wholly distinct from the r. maxillaris 

 superior. The motor fibers of the nerve innervate the mm. masseter 

 and temporalis. The sensory component has the distribution usual in 

 Urodela excepting that certain ramuli apparently, not certainly, inner- 

 vate lateral line sense organs. No anastomosis between this compo- 

 nent and the r. alveolaris VII was observed. 



A general cutaneous nerve from the Gasserian ganglion fuses with 

 the r. buccalis VII to form the "ramus maxillaris superior." Upon 

 the distribution of these components Professor Kingsley contributes 

 important data, i e., that the two branches of the so-called r. maxil- 

 laris of Amphiuma, which others have described as anastomising with 

 branches of the r. ophthalmicus profundus, are made up, in part at least, 

 of lateralis VII fibers. The exact nature of these anastomoses is funda- 

 mental to a thorough knowledge of the morphology of the r. maxillaris 

 and ophthalmic profundus, as I have pointed out in my paper on Am- 

 blystoma {Jour. Comp. Neurol. XII, 3, pp. 259, 260). 



The ophthalmicus profundus anastomoses by only one branch 



^The Cranial Nerves of Amphiuma. By J. S. Kingsley. Tuffs College 

 Studies, No. 7 (Scientific Series), pp. 293-321. 



