390 THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 
constrictor. The muscle is placed beneath the middle and inferior constrictors in 
the pharyngeal wall, and the fibres of the muscles of opposite sides decussate in the 
middle line beneath the median raphe. 
THE MUSCLES OF THE SOFT PALATE. 
The muscular fold of the soft palate and uvula is composed of five pairs of 
muscles on each side, attached to the skull, hard palate, pharynx, and tongue—the 
palato-pharyngeus (and salpingo-pharyngeus), azygos uvule, levator palati, tensor 
palati,and palato- 
colossus. 
The palato- 
pharyngeus 
muscle has been 
already described 
(p. 589) among 
the muscles of the 
pharynx. 
The azygos 
uvule consists 
of two narrow 
TENSOR ATI MUSCLE }, 
-ENSOR PALATT MUSCLE undies encloseus 
Z Eustachian tube i 
Z EAy LEVATOR PALATI along ; with the 
Gf cer rec mandibular insertion of the 
A i superior consrricror levator palati, 
S?TYLO-PHARYNGEUS between t he 
STYLO-GLOSSUS ] ayers of the 
ossopharyngeal 
uerve palato-pharyn- 
Stylo-hyoid ligament oeus. The slips 
__—_ Hy poglossal nerve Om 
arise from the 
. posterior nasal 
Ree spine and the 
Superior laryngeal 5 
Toca aponeurosisof the 
INFERIOR CONSTRICTOR goft palate, and 
unite as they pro- 
ceed backwards to 
External laryngeal end in the uvula. 
BuCCINATOR 
| 
a, IDDLE CONSTRICTOR 
[: 
MyLo-HyoIp- 
Hyo-GLossus 
. oe 
DIGASTRIC 
SvyLo-HYOID 
OMO-HYOID 
STERNO-HYOID 
THYRO-HYOID 
eu The levator 
palati has a 
double origin: (1) 
from the under 
surface of the 
Crico-THyROID———————— ¥ erie 
apex of the pet- 
rous portion of 
__Gisophagus the temporal 
Inferior laryngeal bone,and (2) from 
NEES the lower part of 
Fic. 286.—LaTeRAL ViEW OF THE WALL OF THE PHARYNX. the cartilaginous 
Eustachian tube. 
It passes obliquely downwards and inwards, across the upper border of the superior 
constrictor muscle, and afterwards between the two layers of the palato-pharyngeus 
muscle to enter the soft palate, into the aponeurosis of which it is inserted. Some 
of its fibres become continuous with those of the opposite muscle. It is separated 
from the tensor palati by the Eustachian tube and the deeper layer of the palato- 
pharyngeus muscle. 
The tensor (circumflexus) palati arises from the scaphoid fossa and the alar 
spine of the sphenoid bone, and from the outer side of the cartilaginous Eustachian 
tube. It descends between the internal pterygoid muscle and the internal ptery- 
goid plate, and ends in a tendon which hooks round the hamular process, and is 
