460 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



ciculi go to the zygomatic muscles and to the contiguous skin. 

 All the foregoing branches of the infra-orbitar nerve anasto- 

 mose with the extremities of the facial, and are so minutely 

 distributed to the skin and muscles of the face, that it would 

 require a very protracted description to point them out par- 

 ticularly. 



The Pterygo-palatine Nerve (Nervus Plerygo-palatinus) de- 

 scends, as a single or a doubte trunk, from its root to the out- 

 side of the spheno-palatine foramen, and there forms the gang- 

 lion of Meckel,* or the spheno-palatine ganglion, the existence 

 of which is not constant. From this ganglion, or from the nerve 

 itself proceed several branches. 



A filament, described by Bock, is detached from it, which en- 

 ters into the sphenoidal sinus to be distributed on its lining mem- 

 brane, and sometimes to anastomose^ with the motor externus 

 oculi. 



Then arise the Spheno-palatine branches, which enter the 

 nose through the spheno-palatine foramen, and are distributed 

 upon the mucous membrane of its septum and turbinated por- 

 tions, after the manner described in the account of the nose. 



The Vidian or Pterygoid Nerve (Nervus Vidianus,recurrens, 

 pier y golden s) arises from the inferior part of the ganglion, and 

 is a recurrent branch, which goes backwards through the ptery-. 

 goid foramen of the sphenoid bone. From it there arise some 

 filaments, which get to the mucous membrane about the ante- 

 rior orifice of the Eustachian Tube, either through the spheno-^ 

 palatine foramen, or by small foramina in the pterygoid process 

 of the sphenoid bone. They are sometimes united into a single 

 trunk, called pharyngeal, by Bock. The Vidian nerve, while 

 still in its canal, then divides into two trunks, the superficial, 

 and the deep petrous, 



The Superficial Petrous (Nervus Petrosus Superficialis) tra* 

 verses the cartilaginous matter at the point of the petrous bone, 

 in the anterior fora nen lacerum of the basis of the cranium, 

 gets there into the cavity of the latter, continues its progress 



* Discovered by Meckel, 1749, 



