Herrick, Qmiml Nn-vcs of the Cod Fish. 307 



gangliose Masse, wclche langs der Austrittsstelle des N. facialis 

 sich erstreckt und aus welcher ferner der in den Augenmuskel- 

 kanal absteigende starke N. palatinus hcrvorgeht, welche aber 

 zulctzt der Ausgangspunkt des am l-)oden der Schedelhohle 

 nach hinten sich erstreckenden Ranius recurrens vvird." 



I quite agree with Cole that the internal courses and peri- 

 pheral distribution of all of these fibers must be worked out in 

 the cyprinoids before ^^■e can arrive at safe conclusions ; but I 

 have said thus much in order to meet another remark of Cole's. 

 " It is hence perfectly clear that the accessory lateral nerves of 

 fishes consist, as has been proved microscopically, of somatic 

 sensory fibers." My examination of the literature has led me 

 to no such conclusion, nor can I accept Cole's results as decisive 

 in the matter. 



But first of all, the matter of definition is important, for 

 it appears from some correspondence which I have had with 

 Mr. Cole that we use the term "somatic sensor)-" in slightly 

 different senses. I have used it in the sense proposed by Strong, 

 viz. , as synonymous with " general cutaneous," or nerves dis- 

 tributed to the outer skin without specialized end-organs and 

 terminating in the dorsal horns or their morphological equiva- 

 lents in the head, viz., the spinal V tract and its associated 

 nuclei. But Cole appears to use the term more nearly in Gas- 

 kell's sense, as applying to all cercbro-spinal nerves ending in 

 the skin. He, however, excludes all lateral line nerves, but is 

 not willing to exclude the communis nerves for terminal buds of 

 the outer skin, though for what reason it does not appear, 

 since these are quite as distfnct from the general cutaneous 

 nerves as are the lateral line nerves. 



The fact that communis nerves from the geniculate gan- 

 glion do reach the outer skin can certainly no longer be doubted. 

 If further proof of this were necessary, Kingsbury ('97) has 

 shown that nature has performed a beautiful experiment, which 

 may be said to settle the matter conclusively. For in cyprinoids 

 and siluroids, where the accessory lateral nerves and their term- 

 inal buds are the most highly developed, they have been shown 

 not only to belong to the facialis (certainly in the latter case 



