NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
71 
of the abducentes from the great organic nerve . It evidently 
goes not from the sixth to the organic, but it comes up in bulk 
through the base of the skull, and unites with the sixth. You 
will, by-and-by, be assured, and you will understand the reason 
of it, that this organic nerve freely anastomoses with every other 
nerve and every part; but the purpose for which these considerable 
branches are sent to the sixth is not yet apparent. For the pre¬ 
sent I leave this part of our subject, again reminding you that 
this abducens is a kind of antagonist of the superior oblique, the 
character of whose nerve a little puzzled us. If it should prove to 
be an organic nerve, why here is plain and palpable union with the 
great organic to correspond with it. 
The Linguales , or Twelfth Pair of Nerves .— Still proceeding 
posteriorly, and in the same track, we find the lingualis, the last 
of the simple nerves of the cranium, arising also from the inferior 
surface of the medulla oblongata—arising also, but not so decidedly 
from the central column, and formed from fibriculi springing in a 
line. Here I begin to have a clearer conception of that of which 
I had not a trace in the nerves of pure sensation ;—this nerve is 
scarcely formed before it anastomoses, and by many a filament 
with the cerebro-visceral—its union with the sub-occipital and 
the first cervical cannot escape my observation ; and when I 
dissect it carefully, and especially its descending branches, I 
find it allied with the second cervical, with the spinal accessory, 
and with the great organic nerve—its superior branch also unites 
with the gustatory branch of the fifth in endless anastomoses, 
making a complete plexus, or network, of nervous filaments. I 
need not be told that there are many important offices to be per¬ 
formed by this little agile member the tongue, and I must call in 
the aid of many a neighbouring muscle, or almost all of them, in 
order to effect these purposes. After all these anastomoses, the 
main branch, accompanied by the fifth, penetrates into the sub¬ 
stance of the tongue, pervades every part of it, and is lost in 
innumerable minute ramifications. This, then, is plainly a nerve 
of voluntary motion. 
Characters of the Cerebral Nerves of Voluntary Motion. —And 
now, gentlemen, after a somewhat long and intricate, yet I trust 
not quite unpleasant journey, we have arrived at a resting place. 
This is the last of the pure voluntary motor nerves ; and, compar¬ 
ing them together (leaving out at present the fourth, with which 
I have said I scarcely know what to do), we obtain these charac¬ 
ters of the cerebral nerves of voluntary motion, which may guide 
us materially in our future inquiries— they arise from the infe¬ 
rior surface of the prolongation of the spinal chord, and from its cen¬ 
tral column, by numerous fibriculi attached in a line to the surface 
of the brain , and they anastomose freely with neighbouring nerves . 
