MUSTEiiUS l.t:vis. 167 



together with eertain branches of the maxillaris trigemini, is 

 quite unquestionably the nerve to which Howes has recently 

 made reference (38, footnote, p. 51) as a nerve for which the 

 late Professor Huxley intended proposing the name palato- 

 nasal, or hyporhinal. Professor Howes has very kindly 

 sent me ^ a full copy of the unpublished manuscript in which 

 this nerve is discussed by Professor Huxley, and I consider 

 the subject so important that I shall quote quite fnlly what 

 Huxley says about it. I shall also later quote what Huxley 

 has to say, in the same manuscript, about the chorda tympani. 



This unpublished memoir of Huxley's was to have been 

 entitled " Vertebrate Head ; with Special Reference to Tri- 

 geminal and Facial Nerves and Trabecular," 



Having described the branches of the facial nerve in man 

 and in Amphibia, Professor Huxley then takes up the facial 

 nerve in the common Ray. '^i'he posterior division of this 

 nerve in this fish is first described, and I shall quote his 

 description in full in connection with my discussion of the 

 chorda tympani. He then says : — " II. The anterior division 

 runs forward in the dorsal aspect of the oral mucous mem- 

 brane, on the inner side and in front of the spiracle. From 

 its outer side it gives off numerous branches, some of which 

 are distributed to the muscles of the spii^acle.. and some to the 

 spiracular branchia ; some run outwards and ventrally along 

 the anterior face oF the spiracular cartilage and the liga- 

 mentous fibres which connect it with the palato-quadi-ate car- 

 tilage, and can be traced as far as the articulation of the 

 mandible, while yet others proceed to the palatine mucous 

 membrane extending to the posterior margin of the palato- 

 quadrate cartilage. 



"It is clear that this nerve answers to some extent to the 

 palato-nasal nerve of the amphibia — answers, in fact, to the 

 posterior palatine nerve, but it gives off no fibres having 

 the distribution of those which pass between the nasal sacs 

 on the dorsal side of the vomers, and which I suppose to be 

 the homologue of the nerve of Cotuunius. 



' ' Life and Letters of T. H. Huxley,' vol. ii, App. L 



VOL. 45, PART 2. NEW SERIES. N 



