Cole, Notes on the Nerves of the Cod Fish. 319 



"trigeminal " ganglion was trigeminal and facial ; (2) he denies 

 that the facial fibers are connected with my " facial" ganglion ; 

 and (3) he states that my " facial " ganglion is a true and not a 

 paftial sympathetic ganglion, as I had supposed. 



Now, apart from the fact that whatever the " facial " gan- 

 glion is there is a very strong a prion probability that it does 

 represent a disassociated portion of the trigemino-facial com- 

 plex, the really cardinal point is, are any facial fibers derived 

 from its cells ? In this connection Prof. Herrick's figures 6 and 

 7 are not quite as much to the point as I could wish. The fact 

 is that the " facial " ganglion is not only closely opposed to the 

 other ganglia, but that many true facial fibers pass right through 

 the center of the ganglion.^ It is no explanation of this phe- 

 nomenon to say that ' ' they appear to arise from it merely be- 

 cause of the way the sympathetic ganglion is crowded up into 

 the foramen among these roots." Why should the ganghon be 

 in that position, and has that position no significance ? There 

 are no mechanical necessities explaining it that I am aware of, 

 since in the adult trigemino-facial fibers do not pass through a 

 foramen at all, but emerge anterior to the pro-otic, without, 

 in front, any bony or other limitations as to space. Fur- 

 ther, I thought my sections did show a connection between 

 some of the fibers and the cells — a conclusion which should 

 have been fully verified by other methods of research. But it 

 seems to me that even Weigert sections are also insufficient for 

 this purpose, and I am disposed to consider Prof. Herrick's 

 statement that there is absolutely no connection as "not 

 proven." It is probable that Golgi or methylene blue prepara- 

 tions are necessary to settle this point, and I prefer to suspend 

 judgment pending the production of evidence of that nature, 

 which may show that, whilst many or most of the fibers simply 

 pass through the ganglion, others are connected with its cells. 



4. With regard to the identity of the branches I de- 

 scribed on p. 135, I am unable to be of any assistance with 



1 I take it that Prof. Herrick fully confirms this statement. A true sympa- 

 thetic ganglion occupying such a position may have been described before, but 

 I cannot call an instance to mind. 



