126 NERVE COMPONENTS OF BONY FISHES. 



canal. The communis fibres join, in two branches, the 

 r. lateralis accessorius. The succeeding ramuli of the 

 ramus lateralis supply each one organ of the lateral line, 

 beginning with the first one behind the occipital com- 

 missure. The first and second ramuli each contain com- 

 munis fibres also, which communicate with the r. lateralis 

 accessorius. The naked cutaneous sense organs not in 

 the lateral lines supplied by these nerves I have regarded 

 as terminal buds and they are so drawn in the figures; but 

 subsequent study of Gadus rather favors the idea that they 

 are pit-organs of the lateral line series. 



Section 6, — The Auditory Nerve. 



The ear of Menidia is highly developed. The auditory 

 nerve is, accordingly, large (Fig. 5). There is an in- 

 complete division at its origin into caudal and cephalic 

 rami, the former being intimately associated with the n. 

 lateralis vagi, the latter with the lateralis roots of the VII 

 nerve. The auditory root fibres are so intricately mingled 

 with those of the roots just mentioned that their intra- 

 cranial courses could not be analyzed. 



There is a considerable bundle of coarse fibres passing 

 from the dorsal edge of the ramulus acusticus ampullse 

 anterioris near its separation from the rest of the cephalic 

 auditory root dorsally to joint the dorsal lateralis root of 

 the facialis. It runs externally to all of the other roots of 

 the V -j- VII + VIII complex and crowded in closely be- 

 tween the communis root of the facial and the recessus 

 utriculi (Fig. 20, VIII — d. I.) In one of my series I found 

 what appears to be a similar twig from the VIII running 

 along the inner side of the ganglionic complex to the ven- 

 tral lateralis root of the facial (shown in Fig. 20 just dor- 

 sally of the motor root). But as this could not be verified 



