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Posteriorly both nerves enter the longissimus dorsi muscle and 

 continue in it to the posterior part of the body. The facial ramus 

 runs near the lateral border of the muscle, in some regions just at 

 the border. A short distance anterior to the level of the posterior 

 limbs the nerve leaves the muscle and runs just beneath the skin. 

 I did not succeed in tracing with certainty its fibers posterior to the 

 pelvis, but they doubtless run far back in the tail. 



As to the function of this nerve: As it leaves the hyomandibular 

 trunk some of its fibers are given off to the digastric muscle. Poste- 

 riorly it apparently distributes fibers to the dorsotrachealis muscle, 

 but of the certainty of this I have not been able to satisfy myself. 

 Posteriorly its relation to the dorsal series of lateral line sense-organs 

 is such as to make it not improbable that it is concerned with the 

 innervation of these structures. The nerve runs at the extreme lateral 

 border of the longissimus dorsi muscle just beneath the lateral line 

 sense-organs, unfortunately the nature of my preparations does not 

 permit me to trace fibers from the nerve to the sense-organs, nor to 

 determine with certainty the central endings of the fibers within the 

 brain. I find in many instances that as a sense-organ is approached 

 the nerve bends out to the extreme border of the muscle until it lies 

 close against the sense-organ, then after passing the sense-organ sinks 

 back to its former level. Posteriorly when the nerve leaves the muscle 

 its fibers can be seen running along almost in direct contact with the 

 sense-organs. The sense-organs continue nearly to the tip of the 

 tail, but I have been unable to trace the nerve posterior to the pelvis. 

 The nerve bears the same relation in position to the dorsal sense- 

 organs that the ramus lateralis inferior of the vagus nerve does to the 

 ventral series of sense-organs. 



The suggestion of the presence of lateralis fibers in a branch of 

 the hyomandibular trunk of the seventh cranial nerve is so opposed 

 to accepted opinions that one may well hesitate to advance the possi- 

 bility. But this entire so-called dorsotrachealis branch is an anomaly, 

 apparently without a homologue. 1 have been unable to trace any 

 connection between either the ramus superior or the ramus medius of 

 the vagus nerve and the lateral line organs. Neither do I find com- 

 munications between this facial branch and any branch of the vagus. 



Personalia. 



Würzburg. Prof. Sobotta hat einen Ruf nach Greifswald als 

 Nachfolger von B. Solger erhalten, aber abgelehnt. 



Abgeschlossen am 23. Juli 1905. 



Frommannsche Buchdruckerei (Hermann Fohle) in Jena. 



