PROFESSOE HTRTl's ANATOMICAL NOTES. 105 



deal sometimes in trifles, and the smaller the organ discovered by our 

 ap])lication, the more satisfaction have we. Should science attend 

 only to discoveries that may be saleable in the market of practical 

 life, where would she be standing in the present day ? 



Among my anatomical preparations of tongues, there is one of 

 Cynocephalus Hmnadryas, and one of Tapirus Americanus, in which 

 the arteria mediana linguae is of very considerable size, and extends 

 throughout the length of the tongue to apes. In Cynocephalus, it 

 here divides into two branches, which connect themselves with the 

 foremost twigs of the arteria profunda linguse. I find this vessel 

 also in the tongue of Aquila ftdva. O -Sii 



13. On the Rami perferantes of the anterior Tibial mid 

 Feroneal Arteries. 



AYlien an isolated injection of the anterior tibial artery is made 

 (the trunk on the dorsum pedis must be ligatured, to prevent the 

 filling of the tibialis posterior by the large anastomosis between 

 these two vessels, in the first intermetatarsal interspace) some small 

 arteries will be discovered filled in the deep layer of the calf of the 

 leg. According to the ordinary ideas, the anterior tibial artery is 

 only destined for the muscles, &c. on the forepart of the leg, but on a 

 closer examination, some four or five small branches ■wall be found, 

 which perforate the interosseous ligament at almost equal distances, 

 and reach the posterior part of the leg; they keep close to the 

 periosteum, along which membrane they ramify, and they are joined 

 by ofli"sets of the posterior tibial, coming to the same fibrous 

 membrane. 



Tbe peroneal artery is injected with the same results ; its perfo- 

 rating branches go across, through the interosseous ligament, to the 

 periosteum of the anterior aspect of the tibia, and iiltimately 

 anastomise with the periosteal branches of the tibialis antica ; the 

 tibialis postica does not send off" perforating branches. 



Tliese communicating branches may be of some practical use in 

 cases of ligature of either of the above-mentioned arteries : there is 

 in my anatomical collection a preparation of the arteries of the fore- 

 leg, where a communication is kept up between the trunks of the 

 tibialis antica and peronea, by a very stout-looking vessel of about 

 the calibre of a raven's quill. The anastomosis takes place about 

 half-way down the leg, and the peroneal artery is suddenly augmented 

 in volume at the sjDot where the communicating branch joins the 

 peroneal. 



