I57P 



HUMAN ANATOMY. 



The following layers compose the soft palate from above downward : ( i ) The 

 pharyngeal mucous membrane. (2j A fibro-muscular layer. The fibrous portion 

 is the expansion of the tendons of the tensor palati muscles. It is strong and tense 

 near the hard palate, gradually dwindles lower down, and joins the pharyngeal 

 aponeurosis at the sides. Below this is the complex of the muscles. (3) A glan- 

 dular layer opening into the mouth. This is some 5 mm. thick at its origin and 

 practically continuous throughout most of the palate. It is interrupted at the median 

 line near the hard palate by a septum of muscular and fibrous tissue, is wanting near 

 the free edge of the palate a little on either side of the root of the uvula, and is con- 

 tinued down the uvula as a cylindrical string of glands nearly to the tip, through and 

 about which run the fibres of the azygos uvulce muscle. Irregular glandular collections 

 are found near the latter, especially at the base of the uvula. (4) A lower layer of 

 mucous membrane. 



The mucous membrane of the soft palate is red on the pharyngeal and pale on 

 the buccal surface ; on both sides it presents papillae, those on the upper surface 



Fig. 1329. 



Gland"- 



Aponeurotic tissue 



Pharyngeal 

 mucous 

 membrane i, 



Obliquely cut 

 muscles 



Glands 











-Oral mucous membrane 



Sagitto-lateral section of soft palate. • X 15. 



especially being near the base. The most common form, slender and elongated, is 

 scattered over the entire buccal surface and the front of the uvula (Riidinger). 

 Thicker short papilke are also found near the beginning of the pharyngeal surface. 

 Small adenoid collections occur on the upper surface, as well as small glands situated 

 in the depth of the mucous membrane. The orifices of the chief glandular layer 

 pierce the inferior palatal surface. 



The Muscles of the Soft Palate. — Some of the muscles arise in the soft 

 palate ; others run into it. Isolation of the individual sets of fibres is not always 

 possible. 



The tensor palati { dilatator tubce^ (Fig- 1330) arises from the scaphoid fossa at 

 the root of the internal pterygoid plate, from the spine of the sphenoid, and from the 

 outer membranous part of the Eustachian tube. It descends vertically along the 

 internal pterygoid plate as a round, red, and distinct muscle, which becomes tendinous 

 as it turns inward under the hamular process at right angles to its previous course, 

 after which it broadens into the fibrous expansion in the soft palate already described, 

 above the other muscles. A bursa lies between the tendon and the hamular process. 



