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posterior to the femoral artery and, coming forwards at its medial 
border, crossed anterior to the femoral vein. Finally it turned laterally 
posterior to the vein and terminated in the normal way. In this case 
both circumflex arteries arose from the profunda femoris. 
In 1898 Apacut (5), in describing the condition, pointed out 
that this relationship, though exceedingly rare in man, was the 
general rule in the horse, dog, goat and cat. In 1904, Lenormant 
and Drssarpins (6) recorded two cases. The first corresponds closely 
to the one described in the present note save that the lateral circum- 
flex artery arose entirely from the femoral artery. 
In the horse the arteries which correspond to the inferior and 
superficial epigastric and profunda femoris arteries all arise by a 
common trunk which lies anterior to the femoral vein, a condition 
exactly paralleled by Zamser’s first case. In primates, the condition 
is rather different. Manners Suira (7) has shown that in Hapalidae, 
Cebidae and Cercopithecidae the profunda femoris arises from the 
femoral artery and lies posterior to the femoral vein. In many, 
however, the medial circumflex arises from the external iliac artery 
by a common trunk with the inferior epigastric artery and conse- 
quently lies anterior to the external iliac vein. In Simiidae the 
condition is practically the same as that found in man. 
Manners Suits, in discussing the pelvic origin of the medial 
circumflex, postulates an anastomosis between its branches and those 
of the profunda femoris. By persistence of this anastomosis and by 
failure of its proximal part the medial circumflex becomes a branch 
of the profunda femoris. This theory can be applied to the present 
anomaly. If the above mentioned anastomosis persists and the proxi- 
mal part of the profunda femoris disappears, we have a large artery 
arising high up in the thigh, crossing anterior to the femoral vein, 
giving off the medial circumflex, and terminating as the profunda 
femoris. In this connection it should be noticed that in all the 
anomalies recorded above, in which their origin is mentioned, the 
medial circumflex arteries arose from the profunda femoris. 
A second explanation is possible if it is assumed that the condition 
found in Simiidae and Man has been derived from a condition similar 
to that found in the horse, dog, &c. The former can only have arisen 
from the latter by the persistence of an anastomosis between the 
superficially placed profunda femoris and a retro-venous branch from 
the femoral artery, together with the failure of the original origin 
