498 NEUROLOGY. 



ivLere it- bends upon itself and forms a slight enlargement, the 

 <jenicular ganglion, making its exit through the stylo-mastoid 

 foramen, where it lies deeply buried beneath the parotid gland. 

 Afterwards, inflected forwards, it passes between the gland and 

 the guttural pouch to gain the posterior border of the maxilla, 

 round the cervix of which it turns, and, reaching the external 

 surface of the masseter muscle, terminates in two or three branches, 

 Avhich anastomdso with the subzygomatic branch of the fifth, 

 formingHhe subzygomatic plexus. At the genicular ganglion the 

 seventh nerve is joined by a slender cord, the nei^e of VMshsrg, 

 Avhich is regarded by some authorities as the sensory root of the 

 seventh, hy others as a connecting medium between the seventh 

 and eighth nerves. 



In its course ' the facial nerve gives off numerous branches; 

 some before ' leaving the tjone, the intraosseous, and some after 

 leaymg it, extraosseous. ^ 



The intraosseous branches are the superficial petrosal, which, 

 leaving the genicular ganglion, re-enters the cranial cavity by the 

 Pallopian bialtus, and passing throug)i the cavernous sinus, it 

 receives a tranch from the cavernous plexus of the sympathetic, 

 'f he' nerve thus' formed — the Vidian Tierve- — traverses the fissure 

 -and.conduit of the same name and gains the orbital hiatus, where 

 it joiris MeckMV ganglion, to ^vhich it thus supplies motor iJnd 

 s vttipattifetic fSStfe. :A.' little * to ' the' outside of the'^ above,' the lesser 

 ^uperjitiidl petrosal ixytxix^e^ motor fibres to the otic ''ganglion, 

 ^ahd a small filament supplies the stapedius muscle. The clwrda, 

 iympani branch is given off in the aqueduct of Fallopius. It 

 enters the cavity of the tympanum, passes through the middle of 

 the chain of small bones, or auditory ossicles, and, leaving the 

 cfivity through the Glaserian fissure, after a short course under 

 the pterygoid muscle, joins the lingual branch of the fifth. The 

 last intraosseous branch is one which anastomoses with the 

 pneumogastric. . 



After emerging from the stylo-niastoid foramen, the facial 

 nerve gives off styloid branches to the stylo-hyoid and digastricus 

 muscles ; a cervical branch, which passes downwards below the 

 deprimens aurem muscle to the panniculus and skin of the neck ; 

 twigs to the guttural pouch and parotid gland ; and lastly, the 

 anterior, posterior, and tiriiddlo auricular nerves. 



The ' anterior ' aurihvXar nerve *dscer(ds dVer the'f^bh't' of -the 

 car, supplying the muscles and uniting with branches of the fifth. 



