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ARTERIES OF HUMAN LOWER EXTREMITY of 
Hochstetter did not succeed in following the continuation of 
the a. ischiadica through the leg. Leboueq, however, described 
it in 1893, as pursuing, in the human embryo, an axial course 
between the tibia and fibula and finally perforating the tarsus 
to reach the dorsum of the foot. 
In 1894, Zuckerkandl described the continuation of the a. 
ischiadica of the rabbit as traversing the flexor region of the leg 
and dividing into a number of branches for the supply of the 
sole. He also described two branches of the artery which supply 
the extensor aspects of the leg and foot, respectively. In 1895 
the same author described the perforating artery of the tarsus in 
eat and rabbit embryos and made considerable progress in 
the nomenclature to the primitive artery of the limb. 
In Zuckerkandl’s second paper a distinction was made between 
the terms axial and ischiadic which formerly had been used more 
or less interchangeably to denote the primitive artery of the 
limb. For the entire artery Zuckerkandl employed the name 
axial. He restricted the use of the term ischiadic to the part of 
it which traverses the thigh and used the term a. interossea for 
the remainder of the vessel. The same paper contained the 
first accurate description which had been given of the distal part 
of the axial artery of any mammal. The a. interossea was de- 
scribed in the rabbit as lying between the interosseous membrane 
and m. tibialis posterior. 
Grosser, in 1901, and DeVriese, in 1902, described the a. 
interossea (the a. nervi interosseil cruris of the latter author) 
in bat and human embryos, respectively, as pursuing the course 
it had been described by Zuckerkandl as following in the rabbit. 
Both of these observers also recorded the presence, in the 
subjects of their respective studies, of the r. perforans tarsi. 
During the course of the present investigation it has become 
apparent that the existing literature contains no definite state- 
ment regarding the course taken by the part of the axial artery 
which traverses the popliteal fossa. It is questionable whether 
the popliteal section of the axial artery has been tacitly included 
as a part of the a. ischiadica or not, since the distal limit of the 
latter artery does not appear to have been definitely fixed. In 
