OTIC GANGLION 7 . 483 



posterior palatine foramen. It then passes forwards in the substance 

 of the hard palate to which it is distributed, and communicates with 

 the naso-palatine ganglion and with its branches. While in the pos- 

 terior palatine canal this nerve gives off several branches which enter 

 the nose through openings in the palate bone, and are distributed to 

 the middle and inferior meatus, the inferior spongy bone, and the 

 antrum. 



The middle palatine nerve descends through the same canal to the 

 posterior palatine foramen, and distributes branches to the tonsil, soft 

 palate, and uvula. 



The posterior palatine nerve, the smallest of the three, quits the 

 other nerves to enter a distinct canal, from which it emerges by a se- 

 parate opening behind the posterior palatine foramen. It is distributed 

 to the hard palate and gums near the point of its emergence, and to 

 the tonsil and soft palate. 



The branches of communication are the ascending and the posterior. 

 The ascending branches are, one or two to join the superior maxillary 

 nerve ; one to the abducens nerve ; one to the ciliary ganglion con- 

 stituting its middle root ; and occasionally two filaments to the optic 

 nerve within the orbit. The posterior branch is the Vidian or ptery- 

 goid nerve. 



The Vidian* nerve passes directly backwards from the spheno- 

 palatine ganglion, through the pterygoid or Vidian canal, to the fora- 

 men lacerum basis cranii, where it divides into two branches, the J? /^. ^ 

 carotid and petrosal. The carotid branch (n. petrosus profundus) ^r 

 crosses the foramen lacerum, surrounded by the ligamentous substance ' 

 which closes that opening and enters the carotid canal by several 

 filaments to join the carotid plexus. The petrosal branch (n. petrosus 

 superficialis major) enters the cranium through the foramen lacerum 

 basis cranii, piercing the ligamentous substance of the latter, and 

 passes backwards beneath the Casserian ganglion and dura mater, 

 embedded in a groove upon the anterior surface of the petrous bone, 

 to the hiatus Fallopii. In the hiatus Fallopii the petrosal branch of 

 the Vidian receives a twig from Jacobson's nerve and terminates in 

 the intumescentia gangliformis of the facial nerve. 



While in the pterygoid canal the Vidian nerve sends off a minute 

 branch which passes through an opening in the sphenoid bone and 

 joins the otic ganglion. 



The OTIC GANGLION (Arnold's) f is a small oval-shaped and 

 tened ganglion, resting against the inner surface of the inferior 

 maxillary nerve, immediately below the foramen ovale ; it is in rela-. 

 tion externally with the trunk of the inferior maxillary nerve, just at . 



* Guido Guidi, latinised into Vidus Vidius, was professor of anatomy and"^^-.* 

 medicine in the College of France in 1542. His work is posthumous, and wag^ - 

 published in 1611. jt^+r*+~~- > 



t Frederick Arnold, " Dissertatio Inauguralis de Parte Cephalica Nervv^: L^^^, 

 Sympathetic!." Heidelberg, 1826; and " Ueber den Ohrknoten," 1828. 



