VOMERO-NASAL ORGAN 



97 



with correctness, that these fibers belonged to the olfac- 

 tory nerve (Fig. 24). These observations were confirmed 

 by all subsequent workers including von Lenhossek (1892) 

 in the rabbit, Eetzius (1894) in the snake, Ramon y Cajal 

 (1895) in the rat, and Read (1908) in the kitten. 

 Retzius showed that in the snake those nerve-fibers that 

 were connected with the sense cells in the vomero- 

 nasal organ mingled with the bundle of fibers from the 

 olfactory region of 

 the nose and thus con- 

 firmed von Brunn's 

 suspicion that vo- 

 mero-nasalfiberswere 

 true olfactory fibers. 



Von Lenhossek 

 pointed out that at 

 least in the rabbit the 

 sense cells were not 

 limited to the thick- 

 ;ened face of the vo- 

 mero-nasal organ, as 

 had been maintained heretofore, but were found upon the 

 opposite thin face of the organ as well This observation 

 was confirmed on the rat a few years later by Ramon y 

 Cajal. Hairlike terminations on the vomero-nasal sense 

 cells, such as those that had been found in the olfactory 

 cells, were sought for by a number of investigators 

 but only traces of these structures could be found (von 

 Brunn, Retzius, Read), probably because of the ease 

 with which they are ^destroyed in the preparation of 

 the tissue. 



Von Lenhossek in 1892 not only confirmed von 



FIG. 23. Transverse section of the nasal 

 septum of a young cat showing the vomero- 

 nasal organ (v), its. cartilage (c), and the nasal 

 cavity (n). 



