606 



THE LUMBAR KERYES. 



part of the femoral artery. It divides either in front of that vessel, or at the 

 inner side, into two branches (one anterior, the other internal), -which pierce 

 the fascia separately. Before dividing, this nerve gives off two or three cutaneous 

 twigs, which accompany the upper part of the long saphenous vein. The highest 

 of these perforates the fascia near the saphenous opening, and reaches down to 

 the middle of the thigh. The others appear beneath the skin lower down by the 

 side of the vein ; one, larger than the rest, passes through the fascia about the 

 middle of the thigh, and extends to the knee. In some instances, these small 

 branches spring directly from the anterior crural nerve, and they often commimi- 

 cate with each other. 



Fig. 370. Fig. 370. — Cutaneous Nerves of the Anterior 



AND Inner Part op the Thigh (from Sappey 

 after Hirschfekl and Leveille). j 



^ 1, external cutaneous nerve ; 2, 2, middle enta- 



iieous branch of the anterior crural passing througli 

 the sartorius muscle and the fascia ; 3, 3, anterior 

 division of the internal cutaneous ; 4, filament ta 

 the sartorius ; 5, inner or posterior division of the 

 internal cutaneous ; 6, its superficial branch to the 

 inside of the knee after perforating the fascia ; 7, 

 deep cr communicating branch ; 8, superficial 

 branch of the musculo-cutaneous of the crural ; 9, 

 patellar branch of the internal saphenous nerve ; 

 10, continuation of the saphenous down the leg. 



The antrriov terminal hrancli, descending 

 in a straight line to the knee, perforates the 

 fascia lata in the lower part of the thigh ; it 

 afterwards rims down near the intermuscular 

 septum, giving off filaments on each side to the 

 sldn, and is finally directed over the patella to 

 the outer side of the knee. It communicates 

 above the joint with a branch of the long 

 saphenous nerve ; and sometimes it takes the 

 place of the branch usually given by the latter 

 to the integument over the patella. 



This branch of the internal cutaneous nerve 

 sometimes lies above the fascia in its whole 

 length. It occasionally gives off a cutaneous 

 filament, which accompanies the long saphenous 

 vein, and in some cases it communicates with 

 the branch to be next described. 



The \mu-v hranch of the internal cutaneous 

 nerve, descending along the posterior border of 

 the sartorius muscle, perforates the fascia lata 

 at the inner side of the knee, and communi- 

 cates by a small branch with the internal 

 saphenous nerve, which here descends in front 

 of it. It gives some cutaneous filaments to 

 the lower part of the thigh on the inner side, 

 and is distributed to the skin upon the inner 

 side of the leg. Whilst beneath the fascia, this branch of the internal cutaneous 

 nerve joins in an interlacement with offsets of the obturator nerve below the 

 middle of the thigh, and with the branch of the saphenous nerve nearer the 

 knee. 



D. Internal saphenous nerve. — The internal or long saphenous nerve is the 

 largest of the cutaneous branches of the anterior crural nerve. In some cases it 

 arises in connection with one of the deep or muscular branches. 

 This nerve is deeply placed as far as the knee, and is subcutaneous in the rest 



