108 D. A. RHINEHART 



In conclusion it can be said that, in the mouse, the epithehum 

 of the palate is supplied by fibers from the maxillary nerve, and 

 that the muscle fibers in the walls of the blood-vessels are sup- 

 plied by fibers from the sphenopalatine ganglion. It does not 

 seem possible for the taste-buds and glands of the palate to be 

 supplied by fibers from the sphenopalatine ganglion. The evi- 

 dences that they are supplied by the trigeminal nerve is equally 

 inconclusive. In the absence of other direct anatomical obser- 

 vations on this problem in mammals it must, for the time being, 

 remain an unsettled question. 



Until recently the nerve supply of the m. tensor veli palatini 

 and the m. levator uvulae was believed to come from the facial 

 nerve. In the mouse the branch from the mandibular nerve to 

 the internal pterygoid muscle passes ventrally around the sta- 

 pedial artery and, after supplying the internal pterygoid, sends 

 one branch into the levator veli palatini and another which 

 passes ventral to the otic ganglion and terminates in the tensor 

 tympani muscle. The tensor veli palatini and the levator uvulae 

 muscles are supplied by a branch from the accessory portion of 

 the spinal accessory nerve which sends fibers into these muscles 

 and terminates in the muscles of the pharnyx. 



2. IServus stapedius 



The first branch of the facial nerve peripheral to the genicuate 

 ganglion is the nervus stapedius which arises in the dorsal wall 

 of the tympanic cavity. In the mouse this is undoubtedly a 

 motor nerve. The fibers composing it come from the medial 

 side of the facial stem (figs. 10, 11, and 12, N.Stap.). They 

 unite into a small bundle at the junction of the medial and dorsal 

 borders of the facial nerve and pass into the stapedius muscle, 

 to terminate after the manner of motor nerves elsewhere. There 

 are no ganglion cells along its course, nor does it contain fine 

 fibers. 



Weigner ('05), in the ground-squirrel (Ziesel), describes a 

 ganglion at the place of origin of the nervus stapedius and states 

 that it contains many fine fibers similar to those of the nervus 



