THE GREAT SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM. 889 



b. The inferior carotid fasciculus, sent to the terminal extremity of the 

 sommon carotid, escapes from the inferior part of the guttural ganglion. 

 Frequently at its origin it is only a thick cord, but ordinarily it is composed, 

 from its commencement, of several branches bound to one another by com- 

 municating filaments. Reaching their destination, these branches meet ramuscules 

 emanating from the glosso-pharyngeal and pneumogastric nerves, and anastomose 

 with them to form, around the origin of the three terminal branches of the 

 common carotid, the so-called carotid plexus, the ramifications of which almost 

 exclusively follow the external carotid, the greater part being distributed to the 

 glands and salivary lobules. In Man, the division which follows the spheno- 

 spinal artery passes to the otic ganglion ; the same takes place, no doubt, in 

 animals. 



c. The guttural or pharyngeal filaments, arising from the anterior border of 

 the ganglion and the inferior carotidean fasciculus, are generally very delicate. 

 Those which reach the superior wall of the pharynx concur, with the glosso- 

 pharyngeal and the pneumogastric, to form the phan/ngeal plexus. 



B. Intermediate Cord of the Two Cervical Ganglia. — This cord 

 leaves the inferior extremity of the superior cervical ganglion, lies close beside 

 the pnemnogastric nerve, which always exceeds it in volume, and descends to the 

 entrance of the thorax, where it separates from the vagus nerve, and joins the 

 inferior cervical ganglion. It neither receives nor gives off any branch in its 

 course. 



G. Inferior Cervical Ganglion (Fig. 480, 2). — Generally thicker than 

 the superior, this ganglion is placed within the costal insertion of the inferior 

 scalenus. The right, always a little more anterior than the other, is applied 

 immediately against the side of the trachea. That of the left side is separated 

 from it by the oesophagus. Both are related, externally, to the vertebral artery. 



The inferior cervical ganglion is very liable to vary, and become irregular in 

 form. It is sometimes lenticular, at others more or less elongated, always 

 stellate, and not unfrequently double. In the latter case — which is perhaps more 

 frequent in the left than the right — its two portions are distinguished into anterior 

 and posterior. The last forms the inferior cervical ganglion, properly called (Fig. 

 480, 2) ; the former is much smaller, and is bound to the other by a wide and 

 short greyish band, constituting what has been designated in Man the middle 

 cervical ganglion (Fig. 480, 3). 



In front, the ganglion which we are describing receives the cord intermediate 



to 2, Cervical portion of the sympathetic chain; 1, superior cervical ganglion, in the middle of the 

 guttural plexus ; 2, inferior cervical ganglion ; 3, middle cervical ganglion ; 4, intermediate 

 cervical cord, intimately united at its middle portion with the pneumogastric nerve; 5, cardiac 

 nerves; 6, dorsal portion of the sympathetic chain; 7, great splanchnic nerve; 8, lesser splanchnic 

 nerve; 9, semilunar ganglion, centre of the solar plexus; 10, portion of the hepatic artery 

 encircled by its splexus ; 11, the splenic artery, ditto ; 12, the gastric artery, ditto ; 13. the 

 anterior mesenteric artery, ditto; 14, kidney, elevated, receiving the renal plexus ; 15, the supra- 

 renal capsule with its plexus; 16, lumbn-aortic plexus; 17, lumbar portion of the sympathetic 

 chain; 18, posterior mesenteric plexus; 19, branches from it passing to the anterior mesenteric 

 plexus : 20, spermatic plexus ; 21, branches going to the pelvic plexus ; 22, sacral portion of the 

 sympathetic chain ; 23, pelvic plexus; 24, afferent brauches furnished to the sympathetic by the 

 spinal pairs; 24', the cord which receives six of the cervical ra.m\xs,cxx\e%\ 2h, pneumogastric 

 nerve; 26, superior laryngeal (the pharyngeal branch is seen to be detached from the pneumo- 

 gastric a little below); 27, inferior laryngeal nerve of the right side; 28, that of the left side at 

 the point where it bends round the arch of the aorta; 29, nerves of the bronchial plexus ; 30, 

 superior oesophageal branch; 31, inferior ditto; 32, spinal nerve; 33, hypoglossal nerve; 34, 

 glosso-pharyngeal nerve (represented too thick). 



