WILLARD: CRANIAL NERVES OF ANOLIS CAROLINENSIS. 59 
The anterior ramus (lab. af. md.) is much the larger of the two 
and appears in the sections to be purely cutaneous sensory. It 
passes into the cavity of the complementare bone (Plate 5, fig. 15) 
_ to run cephalad a little distance and then out through a foramen 
on the dorsal side of this bone.. It passes forward along the side of 
the mandible to innervate the integumentary portion of the lower 
lip for about two thirds of its length (Plates 4, 5, figs. 10-15), the 
anterior part of the labial region being cared for by branches from the 
alveolar ramus (Plates 2, 3, 4, figs. 5, 6, 8, 9, lab. af. md.). 
I, 2. Ramus alveolaris inferior. This (alv. of.) is the continuation 
of the mandibular ramus into the lower jaw. It takes a position on 
the dorsal side of Meckel’s cartilage (ert. Mkl.) where this is still 
exposed (Plate 5, fig. 15), and when the membrane bones of the 
mandible close around the cartilage they include both this nerve and 
the chorda tympani. The latter is at first ventral to the alveolaris, 
but gradually assumes a more median position and finally takes up 
the medio-dorsal part of the cross section of the combined nerves 
(Plate 5, figs. 13-15, alv. if. and cd. tym.). The two bundles are easily 
distinguishable up to the place where the first branches are given off. 
The alveolaris gives off several branches at a level with the angle of 
the mouth. 
(a) A small branch, not shown in the figures, is given off from the 
| dorsal side of the main ramus at the line of separation between the 
fine fibers of chorda tympani and the coarser ones of the alveolaris. 
It contains the coarser, well-medullated fibers, not more than ten 
or twelve in number. This appears to be a constant structure, but 
_ its distribution and its function remain undetermined. There is 
nothing in the nature of its fibers to indicate that it is viscero-sensory 
or sympathetic, yet it cannot be followed to any peripheral structure; 
_ the fibers separate in the interosseous tissues of the jaw and cannot 
| be traced outside. It is recurrent in its course, passing caudad and 
) dorsad between the outer dentale and the enclosed complementare 
and is lost on the epitheliod osteoblastic layer between the dentale 
and coronoideum. Its course continued a little farther caudad would 
bring it to the lateral side of the coronoideum, to the place of inser- 
tion of a part of the m. pterygoideus, but such a distribution was not 
-established. Some of the fibers passing out in this nerve appear to 
_ be the coarser ones originally carried by the corda tympani. 
(b) Opposite the point where (a) is given off a ventral mixed branch 
,(md.*) leaves the ramus alveolaris. In passing cephalad it circles 
Meckel’s cartilage swinging down the lateral side and up the median 
