A note on the course and distribution of the nervus terminalis in man

Johnston ('13) was the first observer to determine the presence of the nervus terminalis in man. He first reported its occurrence in human embryos and later ('14) described the nerve for the adult. Brookover ('14), working independently, also observed the presence of this nerve in adult man. Apparently the material used by these authors permitted only of the examination of a portion of the intracranial course of this nerve. It is the purpose of the present paper to report observations on the intracranial course and nasal distribution of the nervus terminalis in man. The observations about to be reported are based on gross dissections of prepared specimens of the heads of several human fetuses varying in age from ten weeks to the newborn. Two adult heads were examined. The nervus terminalis was identified in all the specimens. Drawings were made from the two most favorable dissections. Figures 1 and 2 represent such drawings. The former represents the medial sagittal dissection of the head of a six-months human fetus, the latter a similar dissection of a ten-weeks human fetus. For purposes of dissection the specimens were prepared as described by the. writer ('12) in a previous communication. The intracranial portion of the nervus terminalis, as shown in figure 1, appears on the surface of the brain in the region of the olfactory trigone and courses anteriorly over the medial surface of the olfactory tract and bulb and on to the lateral surface of the crista galli, to pass through foramina in the cribri-