SUPERIOR CERVICAL GANGLION 



1035 



has but three ganglia, one at each end, the superior and inferior, and one between 

 these two, called the middle ganglion. The latter varies somewhat in position and 

 is sometimes absent. 



1. Superior Cervical Ganglion 



The superior cervical ganglion is usually fusiform in shape and is sometimes 

 marked by one or more constrictions. There is ground for the belief that it is 

 formed by the coalescence of four ganglia corresponding to the first four cervical 

 nerves. It varies from an inch to one and one-half inches (2.5 to 3.7 cm.) in 

 length, lying dorsal to the upper part of the sheath of the great vessels of the neck 

 and in front of the transverse processes of the second and third cervical vertebrae. 



Fig. 788. — Diagram of the Glosso-palatine Nerve and the Relations op the Gangli- 

 ATED Cephalic Plexus to other Cranial Nerves. (After Bean.) 

 Broken lines, motor; continuous lines, sympathetic; glosso-palatine ^in solid black. Medial 

 view. Left side. 



( 



Glosso-palatine 

 nerve 



Facial nerve 



Geniculo-tym 

 panic branch 



Oculomotor nerve 



Ciliary 

 ganglion 



-- Ophthalmic nerve 



.1 \ V Maxillary nerve 



4i9---\-rS<- Mandibular nerve 



■' -\V-^'P<^^^$^^5X Great deep 



\\ » \ ^^^^r^ petrosal nerve 



A\A\\^^"~~~ Sphenopalatine 



'-W^MfA ganglion 



l'^( ^- \ V. -. Palatine portion of 



glosso-palatine nerve 



Nerve of pterygoid 



canal (Vidian nerve) 



~* Otic ganglion 



.Middle meningeal 



artery 



_, Submaxillary ganglion 



_ External maxillary 

 artery 



It occasionally extends upward as high as the transverse process of the first 

 vertebra (fig. 787). It is connected with the middle cervical ganglion by the 

 intervening trunk, and it gives off a large number of communicating branches. 

 Rarely, the ganglion may be double or split with a ventral portion lying superfi- 

 cial to the carotid sheath and a dorsal portion dorsal to the sheath, connected by 

 sympathetic filaments near the superior and inferior extremities of the ganglion. 



Communications: — (1) Four grey rami communicantes associate the ganghon with the 

 anterior primary divisions of the first four cervical nerves. 



(2) Communicating branches to the cranial nerves. — An irregular number of small twigs 

 pass between the superior cervical ganglion and the hypoglossal nerve and to the ganglion nodo- 

 sum of the vagus. A named branch, the jugular nerve, runs upward to the base of the skull 

 and divides into two branches, one of which enters the jugular foramen and terminates in the 

 jugular ganglion of the vagus, and the other ends in the petrous ganghon of the glosso- 

 pharyngeus. (See fig. 788) . 



Internal carotid nerve 

 Jugular nerve 



Superior cervical 

 sympathetic ganglion 



