chap. ix.j THE NECK. 1 69 



of the fore part of the neck, and leading backwards 

 and inwards or backwards and upwards towards 

 the pharynx or resophagus " (Paget). Their length is 

 about 1^ to 2 inches, and their diameter varies from 

 that of a bristle to that of an ordinary probe. They 

 usually exist about the line of the third or fourth 

 cleft, and are most often met with just above the 

 sterno-clavicular joint. Others are found about the 

 level of the top of the thyroid cartilage at the anterior 

 edge of the sterno-mastoid muscle. About some of 

 these fistulse, or in spots where they commonly open, 

 flat pieces of cartilage may be found. The more 

 prominent of these have been termed supernumerary 

 auricles. Certain dermoid cysts of the neck arise 

 from unobliterated branchial spaces, and it would 

 appear also that certain poly cystic congenital tumours, 

 occurring as one form of "hydrocele of the neck," 

 may be developed from an imperfectly closed cleft. I 

 have elsewhere detailed the dissection of one of these 

 tumours that appeared to be associated witU a partially 

 closed second branchial cleft (Path. Soc. Trans., 1881). 



