Rostral Extremities of the Sympathetic Trunks

Abstract

THE older anatomists believed that the sympathetic trunks were attached to various cranial nerves; but nowadays the conception that they commence above in the superior cervical ganglia is apparently unquestioned, and the internal carotid nerves are described as branches of distribution of these ganglia. Is this modern view correct, or do the trunks really proceed farther in a rostral direction? They probably do, although not in the manner or position indicated by the classical authors. One suggests that the internal carotid nerves are cephalic portions of the sympathetic trunks, and the evidence in favour of this idea will be summarized here and given in detail elsewhere.