THE PALATE. 



1571 



The levator palati (Fig. 1330) arises from the base of the skull at the apex 

 of the petrous portion of the temporal bone and from the cartilaginous part of the 

 Eustachian tube beside it. At first thick, it passes downward, forward, and inward 

 with the tube, and, leaving it, expands into a layer which spreads out through the 

 soft palate. Some of the anterior fibres from the tube go to the back of the hard 

 palate, constituting the salpingo-palatimcs , while others descend in the lateral wall of 

 the pharynx, covered by mucous membrane, beneath the salpingo-pharyngeal fold. 

 The great body of the fibres crosses the middle line in the front part of the soft 

 palate. Most of them descend in the opposite side. Some seem to form loops with 

 an upward concavity with fibres from the fellow-muscle. Near the hard palate this 

 decussation completely divides the glandular layer (Fig. 1327). 



The azygos uvulae (Fig. 1331), although probably a double muscle originally, 

 soon (even at birth) becomes practically a single one. Arising from the tendinous 

 fibres of the tensor palati just behind the posterior nasal spine, it soon becomes mus- 

 cular and increases in size. Its course is downward into the uvula, but on reaching 

 the base it is already broken up into separate bundles which pass about and through 



Fig. 1330. 



Hard palate 



Hamular process 



Tensor palati 

 Levator palati 



Soft palate (cut) 



External pterygoid plate 



Posterior nares 



Opening oi Eustachian tube 



Cut edge of pharynx 

 Mass of adenoid tissue 



Eustachian tube 



Fossa of Rosenniuller 

 (opened) 



Styloid process 



■_,/^ — ■-''"la' Foramen magnum 

 Occipital condyle 

 Inferior surface of skull with upper part of opened pharynx and palatal muscles attached ; viewed from behind. 



the glandular core of the uvula. The belly of the muscle lies near the dorsal surface, 

 between the fibrous expansion of the tensor palati and the levator palati, which decus- 

 sates on its oral surface. 



The palato-pharyngeus (Fig. 1331) has a complicated origin in more than 

 one layer from the border of the hard palate, from the lower surface of the apo- 

 neurosis, and perhaps from fibres of the levator palati. Certain fibres, either arising 

 in the middle line or coming from the other side, pass downward and outward 

 over the azygos uvulae ; others lie beneath the glandular layer. Some of the fibres 

 seem to continue the course of the salpingo-pharyngeus of the opposite side, with- 

 out being directly continuous. The muscle passes down near the edge of the soft 

 palate and then in the posterior pillar into the side of the pharynx, where it min- 

 gles with the stylo-pharyngeus. A part is inserted into the upper border of the 

 thyroid cartilage, and sometimes into the superior horn. It also expands, together 

 with the stylo-pharyngeus, into a thin layer just beneath the mucous membrane 

 of the back of the pharynx, which meets its fellow in the median line where it is 

 inserted into the pharyngeal aponeurosis. Its lower limit is a curved line with the 

 concavity looking upward and outward, behind the larynx (Fig. 1361). (This part 



