Herrick, Tactile Centers of Prioiiotus. 315 



various functional regions. They pass into the opposite formatio 

 reticularis for the most part, apparently to effect connection with 

 the dendrites of the nucleus ambiguus. Unlike the somatic com- 

 missural fibers, they do not appear to enter either the funiculus 

 ventralis or the fasciculus lateralis. In this they differ trom the 

 secondary fibers which enter the ventral commissure from the 

 lateral division of the vagal lobe in Gadus. In the latter species 

 I have found ('07) that the cutaneous taste buds are innervated 

 from a different part of the vagal lobe from those taste buds which 

 lie in the mucous membranes of the mouth and pharynx, the 

 secondary connections of the cutaneous, or "somatic," gustatory 

 center passing through the ventral commissure to the opposite 

 somatic motor centers by way of the funiculus ventralis. i^'riono- 

 tus, however, is not known to possess taste buds in the outer skin, 

 nor does it react to gustatory stimuli applied to the skin (cf. Her- 

 rick '04, p. 264), and since the secondary gustatory path from the 

 vagal lobe to the opposite funiculus ventralis in Gadus is a special 

 adaptation called forth by the cutaneous taste buds, we are not 

 surprised to find that the commissural secondary gustatory tract 

 terminates differently in Prionotus. The primary gustatory cen- 

 ters of Prionotus are not large, though their peripheral and central 

 connections are of the typical form. The crossed secondary con- 

 nection in the ventral commissure, though present in other fishes, 

 is relatively larger in this species, a peculiarity which I am not 

 able to explain. 



The vagal lobes are extended caudad into the visceral com- 

 missural nucleus under the commissura infima Halleri in the 

 typical teleostean way, though this nucleus is small and not clearly 

 separated from the much larger somatic commissural nucleus 

 (Fig. II). The visceral commissural nucleus receives sensory 

 root fibers from the vagus and sends a broad unmedullated second- 

 ary tract to the formatio reticularis. The visceral part of the com- 

 missura infima is diffuse and chiefly unmedullated. 



The tubercula acustica are very large, but I find no indication 

 of the commissural fibers which pass between them in the com- 

 missura infima, such as appear in Conger. 



The general composition of the fasciculus dorso-lateralis proxi- 

 mally of the funicular nucleus has already been indicated. This 

 tract, as I here define it, includes the whole dorso-lateral fiber com- 

 plex and therefore more than is comprised in the "dorso-lateraler 



