BLOOD-VESSELS OF THE NECK. 501 



the cardiac orifice of the stomach, the cardiac plexus. The 

 right vagus goes to the posterior surface of the stomach, 

 communicating with the solar, renal, splenic, and hepatic 

 plexuses; while the left is distributed on the anterior 

 surface, and lesser curvature of the stomach, sending some 

 branches, by the lesser omentum, to the liver and gall- 

 bladder. 



It is evident, then, that the pneumogastric is a com- 

 pound nerve, that is, that it combines filaments of sensa- 

 tion and motion that it connects together a great variety 

 of organs, as the pharynx, oesophagus, larynx, trachea, 

 lungs, heart, and stomach, and influences an equally great 

 variety of functions, as deglutition, voice, respiration, cir- 

 culation, and digestion. 



The oesophagus, besides the pneumogastric nerves, i 

 also supplied with branches from the thoracic ganglia of 

 the sympathetic. 



SECTION IV. 



ORGANS OF CIRCULATION OF THE NECK. 



The organs of circulation in the neck comprise its blood- 

 vessels, and consist of the arteries and veins. 



The arteries supplying the upper part of the neck are, 

 the superior thyroid, facial, and occipital branches of the 

 external carotid. The vertebral, the thyroid axis, and the 

 cervicalis posterior, supply the lower part of the neck, and 

 come from the subdavian. 



The external carotid has been stated elsewhere, to arise 

 from the common carotid, and this latter to arise from the 

 arteria innominata, upon the right side, opposite the sterno- 

 clavicular articulation, and upon the left, from the arch of 

 the aorta. Both common carotids now ascend the neck 

 nearly in a vertical direction,, having in front, at their ori- 

 gin, the sterno-thyroid, the sterno-hyoid, and sterno-mastoid 

 muscles ; the descendens noni nerve along the middle front, 

 and outside the sheath of the vessels, while the omo-hyoid- 

 eus crosses in front about their middle. On the inside are 



