CRANIAL GANGLIA. 427 



anterior angles by two groups : the upper group, consisting of about 

 four filaments ; and the lower, of five or six. They accompany the 

 ciliary arteries in a waving course, and divide into a number of 

 branches which pierce the sclerotic around the optic nerve, and 

 supply the tunics of the eyeball. A small filament is said, by 

 Tiedemann, to accompany the arteria centralis retina) into the centre 

 of the globe of the eye. 



Its branches of communication are three : 1. From the posterior 

 superior angle of the nasal branch of the ophthalmic nerve. 2. A 

 short thick branch from the posterior inferior angle to the inferior 

 division of the third nerve. 3. A long filament, which passes back- 

 wards to the cavernous sinus, and communicates with the carotid 

 plexus. 



3. The NASO-PALATINE GANGLION (Cloquet's), is a small lengthened 

 body, situated in the naso-palatine canal. There is no difficulty in 

 finding it in that situation. But it is still a question whether 

 it be actually a ganglion. Arnold refuses to admit it in his plates 

 of the cranial nerves, and denies its existence : Cruveilhier agrees 

 with him in opinion. Mr. Charles Guthrie, demonstrator of 

 anatomy in the Charing-Cross School of Medicine, has recently 

 satisfied himself of its existence and of its ganglionic nature.* 



Its branches of distribution are, two or three small filaments to 

 the anterior part of the palate, anterior palatine nerves. 



Its branches of communication are two long delicate filaments, 

 which ascend upon the septum narium, beneath the mucous mem- 

 brane, and pass across the posterior part of the roof of the nares, 

 and through the spleno-palatine foramina, to terminate in the spheno- 

 palatine ganglion at each side. 



4. The SPHENO-PALATINE GANGLION (Meckel's) the largest of the 

 cranial ganglia of the sympathetic, is very variable in its dimensions. 

 It is situated in the spheno-maxillary fossa. 



Its branches are divisible into four groups ; ascending, descending, 

 anterior or internal, and posterior. 



The branches of distribution are, the internal or nasal, four or 

 five in number, which enter the nose through the spheno-palatine 

 foramen, and supply the mucous membrane of the nares ; and the 

 descending or posterior palatine branches, three in number, which 

 pass downwards through the posterior palatine canal, and are dis- 

 tributed to the mucous membrane of the nose and antrum maxillare, 

 to the velum palati and to the palate. 



The branches of communication, are the ascending,^ two small 

 branches which pass upwards to join the superior maxillary nerve ; 

 and the posterior branch or Vidian nerve. 



The Vidian\ nerve passes directly backwards from the spheno- 



* I have several times dissected for this ganglion, and have as yet never failed to 

 find it. G. 



t Arnold figures, in his beautiful plates of the cranial nerves, two small ascending 

 filaments which enter the orbit and join the optic nerve. 



t Guido Guidi, latinized into Vidus Vidius, was professor of anatomy and medicine 

 in the College of France in 1542. His work is posthumous, and was published in 

 1611. 





