SOURCE AND NATURE OF NERVE FIBERS IN CAT CORNEA

Abstract

IT IS GENERALLY accepted that the cornea is supplied entirely by pain fibers from the ophthalmic division of the trigeminus. Less well known are the various conceptions and arguments put forward as to their other sources and functions, i. e., that the maxillary division supplies the lower half of the cornea (Jefferson¹), that autonomic fibers coexist with the sensory (Behr,² Knapp,³ Dandy,⁴ Boeke,⁵ Nageotte and Guyon,⁶ and Marchesani⁷), that large multipolar nerve cells are occasionally present (Zander and Weddell⁸), and that, in addition to pain, the modality of touch exists (Rowbotham⁹; Grant, Groff, and Lewy¹⁰; Tower,¹¹ and others). My colleagues and I undertook the experimental studies to be described here in the hope that further light might be thrown on these questions. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION Methods. —Intracranial division of the ophthalmic, maxillary, and oculomotor nerves was performed successfully on 14