200 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



in the bones of tlie pehds immediately under the last rib. This 

 notch is formed into a round hole in the recent subject by a liga- 

 ment which is extended from it to the rib ; and it is through this 

 hole that the femoral artery makes its exit from the pelvis ; just 

 before it passes out upon the thigh, it sends off a long branch, 25, 

 which runs backward the whole length of the margin of the pel- 

 vis, dispensing arteries to the abdominal muscles on one side, and 

 the obturator internus on the other. This branch also appears 

 to supply one to the oviduct. The femoral artery, immediately 

 after lea\dng the pelvis, separates into two branches ; one goes 

 upward and outward, ramifying amongst the muscles in that 

 situation ; the other turns downward, and is distributed to the 

 flexors of the limb and round the joint, and sends an artery to 

 the edge of the vastus internus, which can be traced as far as the 

 knee. The kidneys appear to derive some irregular inconsider- 

 able branches from the femoral artery while it is within the pehds. 



' The ischiadic artery, figs. 89, 93, 26, is the principal trunk of 

 the lower extremities, exceechng very much in size the femoral. 

 When it is produced by the aorta, it appears to be the continua- 

 tion of that trunk ; the remaining part of the aorta becomes so 

 much and so suddenly diminished, and seems, as it were, to pro- 

 ceed as a branch from the back part of the vessel. 



' The ischiadic artery, wdiile in the pelvis, is concealed by the 

 kidneys, in which situation it gives a branch from its lower side, 

 which di\ddes into three others that are distributed to the sub- 

 stance of the kidneys ; one of these on the left side is continued 

 out of the kidney to be lost upon the oviduct. The artery leaves 

 the pelvis by the ischiadic foramen in company with the great 

 nerve ; while within the foramen it gives a branch obliquely 

 downward under the biceps to the muscles lying in the pelvis ; 

 and as it passes over the adductor it sends off another along the 

 lower edge of that muscle, which is chiefly lost in the semi-mem- 

 branosus. It then detaches several small branches to the muscles 

 on the outer and fore part of the thigh, some of which anasto- 

 mose round the joint -with the branches of the femoral artery. 

 Just as the ischiadic arrives in the ham, it furnishes a very large 

 branch downward, which di\ddes into two ; one goes under the gas- 

 trocnemius, to which and the deep-seated flexors its branches are 

 distributed as far as the heel : the other is analogous to the 

 peroneal artery ; it goes to the outside of the leg, supplies the 

 peroneal muscles posteriorly, and passes along the outer edge of 

 the flexors of the toes to the heel, above which, and behind the 

 flexor tendon, it divides, running on each side of the heel, and 



