Cole, Notes on the Nerves of the Cod Ptsh. %1\ 



may have been deduced from Stannius, as well as from the 

 other authors mentioned in the note in my Gadus paper. I 

 was, however, so influenced by Strong's paper that I was loth 

 to believe it. 



Regarding my statement that the accessorius system is 

 composed of somatic sensory fibers. Prof. Herrick says : "My 

 examination of the literature has led me to no such conclusion, 

 nor can I accept Cole's results as decisive in the matter." To 

 this I only have to say that in spite of Prof. Herrick's demon- 

 stration of the communis nature of the accessorius, which I 

 now fully accept, my statement is perfectly correct. If there is to 

 be any uniformity in the use of a term, the term " somatic 

 sensory " must be applied to all sensory nerves distributed to 

 the skin. If Prof. Herrick thinks that it is unwise to apply 

 one term to two systems of fibers of a different character, then 

 his course is to reject the term altogether. He cannot, how- 

 ever, object to iny legitimate use of it. But if we reject the 

 term, what will this lead to ? I do not consider the lateral line 

 system of nerves to fall within the definition of somatic sensory 

 nerves, for the same reason which prevents me from describing 

 the optic nerve as such. They are mostly distributed to struc- 

 tures which, though they are of course derived from the skin, 

 have since acquired other connections and are typically no 

 longer topographical dermal structures. Their nerve fibers 

 moreover are perfectly circumscribed, and do not occur outside 

 of the Ichthyopsida. On the other hand, with regard to the 

 terminal buds, they are truly dermal structures and only repre- 

 sent a section of a multitudinous array of dermal sense organs. 

 For example in mammals we have distinct sense organs for heat, 

 cold, pressure and so on. It is, I believe, now proved that each 

 such class of sense organ has its distinctive nerve fiber. But 

 would Prof. Herrick classify such fibers into a multitude of sys- 

 tems? Such ultimately may be done, but in the mean time it 

 seems a little premature to dogmatize on the subject of nerve 

 components. 



One more point. In his Menidia paper, p. 42 (of the re- 

 print, p. 198 in the Journal), Prof. Herrick says: "Is the sim- 



