[ 135 ] 

 XXI I. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



May 29. — A PAPER was read On the nerves of the face; be- 

 -t\- ing a second paper on that subject, by Charles Bell, 

 Esq, After recapitulating the contents of his former paper, the 

 author cited cases which have occurred since its publication in sup- 

 port of his doctrine; 1st, That the sensibihty of the head and face 

 depends on the fifth pair of nerves ; 2ndly, That the muscular 

 branches of that pair are subservient to mastication ; and 3rdly, That 

 the portio dura of the seventh pair controls those motions of the 

 parts of the face, whether voluntary or involuntary, which are con- 

 nected with respiration. Instances are given of lesions of the portio 

 dura, from accident or from disease, followed by paralysis of the 

 muscles on the same side of the face, while the sensibility remained. 

 On the other hand, cases are related of injury to the fifth pair being 

 attended with loss of sensibility in all the parts 'receiving branches 

 from the injured nerve, while the power of motion continued unim- 

 paired. In one case of this description, where one half of the un- 

 der lip had become insensible, on a tumbler being applied to the 

 mouth, the patient imagined it was a broken glass that he touched. 

 A similar delusion was experienced by another patient, in whom 

 the half of the upper lip had been deprived of sensation by an in- 

 jury to the suborbital branch on the same side. From these facts 

 the author deduces the absurdity of the practice of cutting the portio 

 dura for the relief of tic-douloureux. He next enters into an ana- 

 tomical description of the course of that division of the fifth pair of 

 nerves which is unconnected with the Gasserian ganglion, and passes 

 under it, and which he considers the motor or manducatory portion 

 of the fifth, being distributed to the temporal, niasseter, pterygoid, 

 and buccinator muscles: some branches of it supplying the muscles 

 of the hps, and also the mylo-hyoideus and anterior belly of the di- 

 gastricus, the action of which is to repress the jaw. In proof that 

 this nerve is destined to manducation, the root of the fifth pair in an 

 ass being exposed and irritated, the jaws closed with a snap ; and, 

 on its being divided, the jaw fell relaxed and powerless. The author 

 next endeavours to show the necessity of an accordance between 

 the motions of the lower jaw and those of the cheeks during masti- 

 cation, and the probability that this connection of motions is brought 

 about by means of the connections which exist among their respec- 

 tive nerves, and between which a sympathy may in consequence be 

 established. In one case violent spasms took place in the massetcr 

 and temporal muscles, while the motions of the features were free 

 and unconstrained ; and in another the muscles of the jaw on one 

 side were paralysed, with loss of sensibility on that side of the face. 

 On the other hand, when the portio dura is j)aralysed, all the 

 muscles of the face waste, except those supplied by the fifth pair. 



linn;i:an society. 

 May 5. — The paper read was "Some account of the Geo- 

 logy and Botany of Swan River, Australia. By Mr. Charles I'rnscr, 

 colonial botanist." 



