The arterial distribution within the mandible and maxillae, which are the only structures having teeth, is more complicated than that of other bones. The whole mandible, including the teeth, is nourished chiefly by the inferior alveolar artery. The mandibular ramus receives small vessels not only from the inferior alveolar artery, but also from the mandibular branch of the maxillary, the posterior deep temporal, the masseteric, and the transverse facial arteries. To date, the arterial supply of

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... the mandible, particularly the mandibular ramus, has not been described adequately ; therefore, little information about the arterial supply has been available in the literature. The present observations will deal with the nutrient arterial branches of the mandibular ramus in the dog using the plastic injection method. Materials and Methods Twenty-five adult dogs were used in this study. After they were sacrificed by depletion, the colloidal plastic was immediately injected through cannulae into the common carotid arteries, employing the plastic injection method of Taniguchi, Ohta and Tajiri (1952 and 1955). After the hardening of the injected plastic, soft structures were dissolved away with a sodium hydroxide solution in order to prepare the plastic corrosion specimens. To demonstrate the fine arterial vasculature in the mandibular bone, the specimens, which were soaked in alkali, were dissected 377