Herrick, Nerve Components of Bony Fishes. 285 



macroscopically, the entire complex being termed by 

 many writers the Gasserian ganglion. The microscope, 

 however, readily analyses this complex and distributes 

 the fibres from each element into their respective rami 

 (Figs. 4, II and 12). 



The analysis of the rami peripherally is a much more 

 difficult matter. Nevertheless it has been accomplished 

 with results which I think are free from ambiguity except in 

 a very few points. There are very few of the rami which 

 can be assigned to either the fifth or the seventh nerve 

 alone. In a few cases, such as the r. palatinus VII, there 

 is but one component represented ; but in the majority of 

 cases fibres from both the fifth and seventh roots are 

 bound up in the same nerve trunk and the question of 

 nomenclature becomes a perplexing one. The time will 

 undoubtedly come, as Strong has pointed out, when the 

 nomenclature of the cranial nerves must receive a 

 thorough revision. The time is certainly not ripe for this 

 now, and I have avoided, so far as possible, the introduc- 

 tion of new names, selecting from the current terms the 

 one which seems the most appropriate in each case, and 

 giving to it a definite and often somewhat arbitrary sig- 

 nificance. Thus I have assigned, following the usual 

 custom, the truncus hyomandibularis to the seventh 

 nerve, though it receives general cutaneous fibres from 

 the trigeminus root in addition to its proper facial fibres. 

 Similarly the r. maxillaris trigemini receives communis 

 fibres from the facial root. 



As just intimated, the composition of the several rami 

 at their proximal ends can be stated with accuracy. Peri- 

 pherally the three classes of sensory fibres and the motor 

 fibres can, with few exceptions, again be easily separated 

 before they pass to their terminal organs. In the nerve 



