Autonomic nerves ( AUN ; Langley, 1898 ) : A topographic division of nerves (Herophilus, c335-280 BC). An autonomic nerve is a vertebrate nerve (Herophilus, c335-280 BC)-and a communicating or anastomotic network of branches (a prevertebral plexus or a terminal plexus) sometimes associated with it-that appears macroscopically to arise in the peripheral nervous system (Meckel, 1817) from an autonomic ganglion (Langley, 1900) rather than a craniospinal nerve. In the second century, Galen-see translations by Singer (1999, p. 142) and Duckworth (1962, p.111)-described at least some of them in animals except humans, and the term was introduced by Langley (1898, p. 241).