180 



Terminale. This ganglion was a compound of 6 to 8 ganglia, com- 

 bined by a net of nervous fibres. 



He mentions nothing about a N. Vomeronasalis, but found a stout 

 nerve without ganglionic cells, which, with a branch of tiie N. 

 Terminalis, passes through one of the hiudinost openings of the 

 Lamina Cribrosa to the nasal se|)tum and anastomoses jieripheraliy 

 with the N. Nasopalatinus. 



Brookover considers the above-named stout nerve as a sympathetic 

 anastomosis between the Ganglion Sphenopalatinum and the Ganglion 

 Terminale. To mj mind this nerve is tiie N. Vomeronasalis, which 

 has tiien not been aboi-ted after bii'th, in man, as was hitherto the 

 general opinion. In case this conjecture is cori-ect, it must ai'ise behind 

 in the olfactory bulb and supply the vomeronasal organ. 



This organ is generally present in the vertebrates higher than the 

 fishes '), and seems to be a product of adaptation to terrestrial life. 

 Jt first appears in the amphibians, and has been lost or is present 

 only in the early stages of development in the higher forms which 

 liave secondarily become aquatic again (crocodiles, partly also the 

 Chelonia, the Cetacea, and the Pinnipedia). 



Flying also seems to be unfavourable for the development of the 

 organ (birds and some — not all — of the bats). 



The organ is usually named after Jacohson, who found it inde- 

 pendently in a large number of matnmals, and who also discovered 

 the N. Vomeronasalis. His work became known tiirough the report 

 CuviER made on it'). 



x^ffer the considerable praise which Cuvikr bestows on the work, 

 for a part done in his laboratory, one would expect at the end of 

 his report to the ''Insfitut" the advice to have the treatise of Jacobson, 

 "pensionnaire et chirurgien-major dans les armées de Roi de Danemark", 

 printed. The end of the report, however, reads as follows: "Nous 

 croyons que le Mémoire de i\I. Jacobson mérite Tapi^robafion de la 

 classe [de I'lnstilut] et que cet anatomiste doit étre invite a continuer 

 des recherches, qui -ont déja fourni un résultat aussi curieux". 



This encouragement does not, however, seem to have had the 

 desired result. At least it is not known that Jacobson has published 

 his treatise, enlarged or not. 



For the rest Cuvier makes a mistake in believing that nobody 

 had observed the organ before JACOHbON, and that it is not present 



^) G.f. R. WiEDERSHEiM, Vei'gleichende Anatomie der Wirbeltiere, Jena, 1909. 



2) G. GuviER, Rapport fait a I'lnstilut, sur un Mémoire de M. Jacobsox intitule: 

 Description analomique d'un Organe observe dans les Mammifères. Annales du 

 Muséum d'Histoire naturelle, Tome 18, 1811. 



