THE RAMUS LATERALIS ACCESSORIUS. 245 



from it via the r. lateralis vagi and other nerves and that 

 in siluroids and gadoids terminal buds of the same regions 

 of the trunk will be supplied from the fasciculus com- 

 munis via the r. recurrens VII, or r. lateralis accessorius. 



The different accounts of the anastomosis between the 

 VII and the IX and X nerves present a very interesting 

 series. 



In the cyprinoids and in Gadus merlangus, Baudelot 

 ('83, p. 129) describes an intra-cranial communication 

 from the V (VII?) nerve to the IX. In the former case it 

 is large, runs internal to the ear and VIII nerve and 

 anastomoses with the IX and X nerves and then forms a 

 recurrent branch for the trunk which anastomoses with 

 the first spinal. In Gadus merlangus it is very small and 

 runs internal to the ear, but external to the VIII nerve, 

 with which it anastomoses. He regards the cases as 

 homologous and from a comparative study of a number of 

 cyprinoids concludes "that even in the cyprinoids, the 

 recurrent bundle exhibits a tendency to rise up on the 

 side of the medulla in such a way as to stride over succes- 

 sively, so to speak, each of the nerves which springs from 

 this part of the medullary axis," In Gadus merlangus 

 this process is carried a step farther and we may carry 

 this series even farther than Baudelot has done, to include 

 the extra-cranial anastomoses such as I have described in 

 Menidia. 



The intra-cranial communicating branch between the 

 vagus and the " r. lateralis V," which Stannius, Baudelot 

 and others describe in many fishes, is totally wanting in 

 Menidia, as in Silurus, ('49, p. 50), as would be expected 

 if these recurrent nerves all belong to a single system 

 whose position may vary from an intra-cranial anastomosis 

 with the IX and X nerves to a sub-cutaneous anastomosis 



