Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 979
| pharynx, where they join with branches from the glossopharyngeal, vagus, and external laryngeal nerves to form the pharyngeal plexus. |
| The superior cardiac nerve (n. cardiacus superior) arises by two or more branches from the superior cervical ganglion, and occasionally receives a filament from the trunk between the first and second cervical ganglia. It runs down the neck behind the common carotid artery, and in front of the Longus colli muscle; and crosses in front of the inferior thyroid artery, and recurrent nerve. The course of the nerves on the two sides then differ. The right nerve, at the root of the neck, passes either in front of or behind the subclavian artery, and along the innominate artery to the back of the arch of the aorta, where it joins the deep part of the cardiac plexus. It is connected with other branches of the sympathetic; about the middle of the neck it receives filaments from the external laryngeal nerve; lower down, one or two twigs from the vagus; and as it enters the thorax it is joined by a filament from the recurrent nerve. Filaments from the nerve communicate with the thyroid branches from the middle cervical ganglion. The left nerve, in the thorax, runs in front of the left common carotid artery and across the left side of the arch of the aorta, to the superficial part of the cardiac plexus. |
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FIG. 844– Diagram of the cervical sympathetic. (Testut.) (See enlarged image) |
| The Anterior Branches (nn. carotici externi) ramify upon the common carotid artery and upon the external carotid artery and its branches, forming around each a delicate plexus, on the nerves composing which small ganglia are occasionally found. The plexuses accompanying some of these arteries have important communications with other nerves. That surrounding the external maxillary artery communicates with the submaxillary ganglion by a filament; and that accompanying the middle meningeal artery sends an offset to the otic ganglion, and a second, the external petrosal nerve, to the genicular ganglion of the facial nerve. |
| The middle cervical ganglion (ganglion cervicale medium) is the smallest of the three cervical ganglia, and is occasionally wanting. It is placed opposite the sixth cervical vertebra, usually in front of, or close to, the inferior thyroid artery. It is probably formed by the coalescence of two ganglia corresponding to the fifth and sixth cervical nerves. |
| It sends gray rami communicantes to the fifth and sixth cervical nerves, and gives off the middle cardiac nerve. |
| The Middle Cardiac Nerve (n. cardiacus medius; great cardiac nerve), the largest |