I40 AYERS. [Vol. VI. 



dorsalis) liegt," though the bundle of fibres from this source is 

 relatively a small one. There is a distinct cerebellar connection. 



According to Dr. Kuhn, after the auditory nerve in Esox 

 luciiLS leaves the medulla, it runs a short distance in company 

 with the facial, and then divides into two branches, the utricular 

 and saccular. It is the utricular side of the auditory trunk that 

 goes out with the facial, and this branch supplies the macula 

 utriculi cristse acusticae anterioris and externalis. The saccular 

 branch fuses with the glossopharyngeal for a short distance, 

 and, according to F. E. Schulze, there is an exchange of fibres 

 between them. The saccular branch supplies the macula sac- 

 culi, the papilla lagense, and the posterior canal organ crista 

 acustica posterioris, with its offspring, the crista acustica 

 abortiva. 



According to Wright, loc. cit., in Amiurus the dorsal branch 

 of the facial arises in the tuberculum acusticum, from which 

 also arises the anterior root of the IX. 



The discrete external origin of the two branches of the VIII 

 is most plainly seen in Teleosts, where the two roots are not 

 infrequently separated by a considerable interspace. In Pla- 

 giostomes this matter of origin is much obscured, and, as above 

 stated, the unified acoustic trunk may give off a branch to fuse 

 with the glossopharyngeal nucleus. In some Cottids the nerve 

 leaves the medulla by three branches, which have the following 

 distribution in Cottiis scorpiiis : — 



li-^ root. This is the largest branch, and it issues from the 

 medulla in close company with the motor root of the facial. 

 It divides at once into several branches (three T) for the ampul- 

 lae of the anterior and horizontal semicircular canals and the 

 utriculus. 



2d root. This branch is very short, and runs straight from 

 the medulla to the utriculus, receiving on its way a branch from 

 the third root. 



■^d root. This is the saccular root, and almost immediately 

 on leaving the medulla it gives off the anastomotic branch to 

 the second root and then divides into two short branches, one 

 of which supplies the sacculus, and the other ends in the crista 

 of the posterior ampulla. 



Stannius was in error in considering the third branch as 

 forming a part of the (vestibular) utricular trunk of other forms. 



