72 EDWARD PHELPS ALLIS, JR. 



formed on the general cutaneous root of the trigeminus. Com- 

 munis fibers are sent from this lateraUs-conmiunis ganglion to 

 the general cutaneous one, but no fibers can be traced from the 

 latter to the former ganglion. The ramus ophthalmicus super- 

 ficialis, which arises wholly from the lateralis communis ganglion 

 and contains both lateralis and communis fibers, thus certainly 

 contains but few, and probably no general cutaneous ones. 

 The ophthalmicus profundus must then supply most, and prob- 

 ably all, of the general cutaneous fibers that go to that part of 

 the dorsal surface of the head that is supplied, in most teleosts, 

 exclusively by branches of the so-called ophthalmicus super- 

 ficialis trigemini, and the latter nerve is wholly wanting in 

 Polypterus. 



The ophthalmic nerves of Polypterus thus are: a nerve that I 

 should call the ramus ophthalmicus superficialis trigemini, but 

 which, according to currently accepted views, would be called the 

 ramus ophthalmicus superficialis facialis; and a ramus ophthal- 

 micus profundi, which has ramuli frontalis and nasalis that are, 

 respectively, the portio ophthalmici profundi and ramus ophthal- 

 micus profundus trigemini of current descriptions. If the oph- 

 thalmicus superficialis were to abort, as the fibers that form it 

 always do in all land vertebrates, there would remain a nerve 

 that would quite unquestionably be the homologue of the oph- 

 thalmic nerve of Hoffmann's ('86) descriptions of embryos of rep- 

 tiles, for the radix longa of my 75-mm. Polypterus, which arises 

 from the profundus ganglion, is the ramus ciliaris of Hoffmann's 

 descriptions of reptiles, which latter nerve fuses, for a certain 

 distance, with the ramus nasalis to form the ramus nasociliaris. 

 The opinion long ago expressed by His ('87, p. 398), that the 

 ramus nasalis, or nasociliaris, of mammals corresponds to the 

 so-called ramus ophthalmicus profundus trigemini of selachians 

 is thus confirmed, as is also my conclusion, in my work on Mus- 

 telus (AlHs, '01, p. 299), that the ramus ophthalmicus profun- 

 dus of Polypterus and the portio ophthalmici profundi of gan- 

 oids are, respectively, the homologues of the nasal and frontal 

 branches of the ophthalmic nerves of higher vertebrates. There 

 would then be no so-called ramus ophthalmicus superficialis tri- 



