PISCES. 27 



PLATE IX. 



THE SYMPATHETIC NEEVE OF THE SKATE. 



(RAIA BATIS.) 



ON each side of the superior part of the abdomen, at a short distance from the 

 spine, the sympathetic nerve forms an unequal oblong ganglion of a red-ash colour ; it 

 gives off both large and very small nerves, having this appearance, to pass on the 

 mesentery, communicate with branches of the par vagum, and accompany the mesen- 

 teric arteries to the viscera. Some filaments are distributed about the testicles, and 

 others pass towards the aorta ; but these are too soft to be satisfactorily traced to 

 their precise terminations. The large ganglion communicates by a semitransparent 

 tissue with a small one this with the next, and so on to some distance down the 

 spine ; it communicates by the same tissue with the par vagum, and the large nerves 

 collected from the spinal cord, which resemble the axillary plexus of the higher 

 classes. 



This engraving is of the full size of a preparation made from a skate weighing 

 upwards of thirty pounds. It is taken from the part just above the last gill ; the 

 stomach was divided longitudinally, and then had a portion removed from each cut 

 edge, so that it might be narrowed as much as possible, for giving room for the 

 delineation of the large ganglion of each side. On the right side, the nerves 



E 2 



