NERVES OF REPTILES. 



309 



to form the ' ramus ventralis,' v. The filament of the ventral 

 root sent to the ramus dorsalis of the succeeding nerve perforates 

 the lower division of the dorsal root of its own nerve. 



Thus each spinal nerve forms a ' ramus dorsalis,' fig. 205, 10, 

 and a ' ramus ventralis,' ib. 8 ; the ramus dorsalis includes a 

 sensory filament of its own nerve, and a motory filament of the 

 antecedent nerve : the ( ramus ventralis ' is formed by a motory 



205 



Lateral nerve and branches, Cod. liv. 



and a sensory filament of its own nerve ; both rami ' ventrales ' 

 and ' dorsales ' are associated too-ether, and with the va^al and 

 trigeminal nerves through the medium of the great ' nervus 

 lateralis,' fig. 205, l, 8. 



The dorsal roots of the nerves distributed to the free, explora- 

 tory, pectoral rays of the Gurnards, rise from special ganglionic 

 swellings of the cervical portion of the dorsal myelonal columns. 



§ 56. Nerves of Reptiles. — The olfactory nerves are continued 

 in Reptiles, for a greater or less extent, from the rhinencephalon, 

 figs. 188, 191, to the olfactory sacs; the white and grey tracts 

 beneath the prosencephalon, fig. 190, p, described as roots of this 

 nerve, belong to the rhinencephalic crura: the true olfactory 

 nerves are less distinct from their centres than in other Ver- 

 tebrates. In the Python, fig. 188, the nerves, i, of equal 

 diameter with their centres, gradually expand, by resolution of 

 their fibres, as they approach the olfactory sacs, ib. d, and are 

 joined by part of the first division of the ' fifth.' The olfactory 



