432 THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



seats of such changes as are seen in the laxity, the vascular 

 congestion, oedema, and other affections of the skin of the face 

 and other tegumentary parts which also accompany the pa- 

 ralysis ; and that these changes, which may appear unimpor- 

 tant when they affect external parts, are sufficient to destroy 

 that refinement of structure by which the organs of the special 

 senses are adapted to their functions. 



According to Magendie and Longet, destruction of the eye 

 ensues more quickly after division of the trunk of the fifth 

 beyond the Gasserian ganglion, or after division of the oph- 

 thalmic branch, than after division of the roots of the fifth 

 between the brain and the ganglion. Hence it would appear 

 as if the influence on nutrition were conveyed through the fila- 

 ments of the sympathetic, which join the branches of the fifth 

 nerve at and beyond the Gasserian ganglion, rather than 

 through the filaments of the fifth itself; and this is confirmed 

 by experiments in which extirpation of the superior cervical 

 ganglion of the sympathetic produced the same destructive 

 disease of the eye that commonly follows the division of the 

 fifth nerve. 



And yet, that the filaments of the fifth nerve, as well as 

 those of the sympathetic, may conduct such influence, appears 

 certain from the cases, including that by Mr. Stanley, in 

 which the source of the paralysis of the fifth nerve was near 

 the brain, or at its very origin, before it receives any commu- 

 nication from the sympathetic nerve. The existence of gan- 

 glia of the sympathetic in connection with all the principal 

 divisions of the fifth nerve where it gives off those branches 

 which supply the organs of special sense for example, the 

 connection of the ophthalmic ganglion with the ophthalmic 

 nerve at the origin of the ciliary nerves ; of the spheno-pala- 

 tine ganglion with the superior maxillary division, where it 

 gives its branches to the nose and the palate ; of the otic gan- 

 glion with the inferior maxillary near the giving off of fila- 

 ments to the internal ear; and of the submaxillary ganglion 

 with the lingual branch of the fifth all these connections 

 suggest that a peculiar and probably conjoint influence of the 

 sympathetic and fifth nerves is exercised in the nutrition of 

 the organs of the special senses ; and the results of experiment 

 and disease confirm this, by showing that the nutrition of the 

 organs may be impaired in consequence of impairment of the 

 power of either of the nerves. 



A possible connection between the fifth nerve and the sense 

 of sight, is shown in cases of no unfrequent occurrence, in 

 which blows or other injuries implicating the frontal nerve as 

 it passes over the brow, are followed by total blindness in the 



