This study was attempted to investigate the distribution, shape and light microscopical characteristics of somatostatin immunoreactive ganglion cells in the vestibular(Scarpa's) ganglion of the rabbit(Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus). For the light-microscopical examination of immunocytochemistry, the Scarpa's ganglia were fixed in glutaraldehyde-picric acid-acetic acid(GPA) or 10% neutral buffered formalin solutions by means of perfusion. For identification of the somatostatin immunoreactive ganglion cells, the paraffin sections(6 μm) were stained immunocytochemically by PAP procedure(Sternberger, 1979) with rabbit anti-human synthetic somatostatin(Dakopatts, C.A., U.S.A.). The other side, we stained the sections with toluidine blue or HCl-lead hematoxylin for the microscopical characteristics of somatostatinergic neurons before PAP stain. And with the light microscope, we identified the frequency, shape and characteristics of somatostatin immunoreactive ganglion cells. Vestibular ganglion cells of the rabbit were classified into three types ; large non-immunoreactive ganglion cells(25μm × 17μm), small non-immunoreactive ganglion cells(15μm × 11μm) and immunoreactive ganglion cells(28μm × 22μm), and each frequency were 71.7%, 6.4% and 21.9%. All somatostatin immunoreactive ganglion cells were large neurons(28μm × 22μm) and scattered in the Scarpa's ganglion. These ganglion cells were oval or spherical in shape and contained well developed Nissl's bodies which were distributed in the cytoplasm.