GANGLIONS 



371 



ment to the lachrymal branch of the fifth. 

 Before its entrance into the orbit the nerve 

 receives a filament from the sympathetic,* and 

 at or immediately after entering, it receives one 

 also from the frontal branch of the fifth, by the 

 accession of which it is sensibly increased in 

 size. It is very closely connected to the frontal 

 itself at the back of the orbit. 



Upon the fourth nerve the power of the 

 superior oblique muscle is considered to depend. 

 It is remarkable that this muscle should be 

 provided with an especial nerve, differing, 

 apparently, so much in its encephalic relations 

 from those by which the others are supplied ; 

 but the theories which have been advanced 

 upon the subject are as yet so unsubstantial, 

 that we think it better to leave them untouched. 

 (See ORBIT, MUSCLES OF THE). 



The nerve exists with similar relations in all 

 the vertebrata. 



For the BIBLIOGRAPHY, see NERVE. 



(B.Alcock.) 



GANGLION, (Gr. yayyXto* ; Germ. Nerven 

 Knoten.) This term is applied to several dis- 

 tinct structures : to the nodules placed on cer- 

 tain nerves, to the lymphatic glands or gan- 

 glions, to certain bodies, as the thyroid, the 

 thymus, 8cc., which have been called by some 

 anatomists vascular ganglions, and iastly, in 

 surgical language, to the enlargement of the 

 synovial bursae. It is, however, most gene- 

 rally applied to the ganglions of the nerves ; 

 but of late years many anatomists, who con- 

 ceive that the various masses of grey matter 

 met with in the encephalon and spinal chord 

 are, together with the ganglia of the nerves, 

 sources of nervous power, have extended to 

 those masses the general term of ganglion. 

 Although there can be no doubt that the 

 analogy has a real foundation, and that this 

 application of the word is both convtrcient and 

 correct, it is nevertheless proposed, in obe- 

 dience to custom, to retain the old and more 

 limited sense of the term ganglion, and to 

 devote tto present article to the structure of 

 the ganglions of the spinal and sympathetic 

 nerves, referring the reader for an account of 

 the functions of these bodies to the articles 

 NERVOUS SYSTEM and SYMPATHETIC NERVE. 



The nervous ganglions consist of a number 

 of oval or roundish organs connected with 

 certain nerves, and placed deeply in the trunk 

 of the body, to whkh they are confined, being 

 situated, with the exception of those of the 

 head, in the immediate vicinity of the vertebral 

 column. Their number and size are subject to 

 variation, not only in different persons, but even 

 on the two sides of the same individual ; the 

 following is the enumeration which approaches 

 nearest to the truth : thirty on each side of 

 the body, placed on the posterior roots of the 

 spinal nerves ; one on each side, situated on 

 the larger origin of the fifth pair; the ganglions 

 of the great sympathetic consisting of the follow- 

 ing, connected on each side of the body with what 



* See Pauli in MUller's Archiv. for 1834. 



is regarded as the trunk of this nerve, vkt. thcee 

 cervical, twelve dorsal, three to four or five 

 lumbar, three to five sacral ; to these we must 

 add some large masses placed near the mesial 

 plane, viz. two semilunar, three or four coeliac 

 ganglions, and one cardiac ganglion, first de- 

 scribed by Wrisberg, but which is occasionally 

 deficient ; and lastly, forming a part of the great 

 sympathetic, the ophthalmic, the spheno-pala- 

 tine, the otic, and the submaxillary ganglions, 

 and a small body usually met with in the caver 

 nous sinus, the cavernous ganglion. M. Hip. 

 Cloquet has described in rather vague terms a 

 small reddish mass placed in the anterior 

 palatine canal, which he calls the naso-palatine 

 ganglion ; but Arnold, Cruveilhier, and others 

 deny, and with good reason, the existence of 

 this body. A gangliform enlargement is con- 

 stantly seen on the commencement of the ner- 

 vus vagus, and a second lower down ; a 

 similar swelling is also placed on the glosso- 

 pharyngeal nerve (g. petrosum). 



Professor Miiller of Berlin has discovered 

 above this enlargement a true ganglion on the 

 the glosso-pharyngeal (ganglion jugulare nervi 

 glosso-pharyngei), occupying half or two-thirds 

 of the trunk of the nervt, and being precisely 

 to that nerve what the intervertebral ganglion 

 and the Gasserian are to the spinal nerves and 

 the fifth pair. My colleague Mr. Walker has 

 shown me this ganglion, which is placed in the 

 upper part of the foramen lacerum basis cranii 

 posterius, and corresponds to the above descrip- 

 tion.* 



Arnold has further noticed that at the junc- 

 tion of the superior twig of the Vidian nerve, 

 or nervus innominatus, with the facial nerve, 

 there is a gangliform swelling.f 



Mayer has discovered a minute posterior 

 root of the sublingual nerve, with a ganglion 

 on it, in some mammalia (ox, dog, pig), and 

 in one instance in man. 



Thus the total number of ganglions in the 

 human body amounts to about one hundred 

 and twenty-seven, exclusive of the gangliform 

 enlargements on the pneurno-gastric, glosso- 

 pharyngeal, and the facial nerves. 



These bodies have been variously arranged 

 by writers on this subject ; thus by WeberJ 

 they are divided into ganglions of reinforce- 

 ment, such as those on the spinal nerves, and 

 into ganglions of origin, of which those of the 

 sympathetic, the ophthalmic, and the spheno- 

 palatineare examples; whilst Wutzer, classing 

 them according to their situation and relations, 

 considers that there are three orders, 1. the 

 cerebral ; 2. the spinal ; 3. the vegetative : 

 the first comprises the Gasserian ganglion, the 

 ophthalmic, and the ganglion of Meckel, to 

 which must be added the otic ganglion of Ar- 



* This very interesting discovery confirms the 

 opinion that the glosso-pharyngeal is, like the spi- 

 nal and the fifth, a compound nerve of motion and 

 sensation. See Medizinische Vereins-Zeitnng. 

 Berlin, 1833. 



t Icones Nerv. Corp. p. 2. tab. ii. and vii. 



J Anat. Compar. nervi sympath. 



$ De corp. hum. ganglior. fabrica atquc usu, 

 p. 52. 



