282 PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY 



first implanted in the vertebra next in front of that from which they rise, and then into 

 the vertebra next but one in front (m*) : the most anterior of these tendons of insertions, 

 to which can be traced any of the fibres of the main body of the longissimus dorsi (re- 

 flected back in PI. XXXIII. tig. 1, m) is that which is implanted into the thirteenth cer- 

 vical vertebra (m**) ; it is this fasciculus which is joined by the first or most posterior 

 of the fasciculi obliqui of the longus colli posticus (o 1 ) which is detached and reflected 

 upwards in fig. 1. PI. XXXIII. 



Obliquus colli (PI. XXXII. XXXIII. »i 1 — 9). — A series of oblique carneous fascicuU, 

 evidently a continuation of, or part of the same system with those in which the longissi- 

 mus dorsi terminates anteriorly, is continued between the upper transverse process of one 

 cervical vertebra to the posterior oblique processes of the next vertebra but one in ad- 

 vance, as f\vr forward as the fourth cervical vertebra. This series of muscles seems to 

 represent the transversalis colli\ which is the anterior continuation of the longissimus 

 dorsi in Mammalia, but it differs in being inserted into the oblique, instead of the trans- 

 verse processes. In the direction of their fibres these fasciculi resemble the semispinalis 

 colli, but they are inserted into the oblique processes instead of the spines of the vertebrae. 

 There are no other muscles with which they can be compared in the Mammalia than 

 tiiese two, with neither of which, however, do they precisely correspond ; they seem 

 clearly to represent the second series of oblique muscular fasciculi in the trunk of Fishes, 

 but to avoid the expression of an incomplete or false analogy, I shall term them collec- 

 tively the fascicidi obliqui. 



The fasciculi obliqui which rise from the first two dorsal and five lower cervical ver- 

 tebrae are joined near their tendinous terminations by corresponding oblique fasciculi 

 (0 1 — 8) of the longus colli posticus, and the strong round tendons continued from the 

 points of convergence of these fascicles are inserted successively into the posterior ob- 

 lique processes of the twelfth to the sixth cervical vertebra inclusive ; the two fasciculi 

 next in succession receive no accessory fibres from the longus colli posticus ; the anterior 

 one (m 9) derives an extensive origin from the upper transverse processes of the eighth, 

 seventh, and sixth cervical vertebroe. It must be observed, however, that the whole of 

 each fasciculus is not expended in the strong round tendinous insertion above described ; 

 the portion (m*, fig. 1. PI. XXXIII.), which arises from the anterior ridge of the transverse 

 process, passes more directly inwards than the rest, and is attached to the tendon which 

 terminates the fasciculus immediately behind ; at the middle of the neck these accessory 

 fibres approach to the character of distinct origins. The tendons of insertion, moreover, 

 severally receive accessory fleshy fibres (n n, fig. 1. PI. XXXIIl.) from the base of the 



' It is the •grand transversaire' of Cuvier, loc. cit. p. 282; but he describes it as passing from the anterior 

 articular process of one vertebra to the posterior articular process of the next in front. Meckel, who calls this 

 muscle ' intertransversttUs cervicis,' follows Cuvier in the description of its attachments, and adds, that it is a 

 continuation of the outer division of the ' extensor commxmis dorsi' {sacra- lumbalis). In the Apteryx it is plainly 

 a continuation of the inner division or longissimus dorsi. See Vergleich, Anatomic, Th. 3. p. 294. 



