36 PROFESSOR A. BIRMINGHAM. 



bone, and the term root to the portion attached by muscles, &c. 

 to the hyoid bone and mandible. 



The Palate. — The palatine glands, which are so abundant in 

 the soft palate, are numerous also in the posterior half or more 

 of the hard palate. Here they extend further forwards on each 

 side (almost to the anterior third) than in the middle line, and 

 gradually cease along a curved line, arching outwards and back- 

 wards on each side from the raphe. In the child at birth the 

 raphe, or rather the incisive pad at the anterior end of the raphe, 

 is continued forward over the upper gum into the frenum of the 



upper lip. 



The anterior part of the soft palate for about 8 or 10 mm. 

 contains practically no muscular fibres: it is made up of 

 the thin palatine aponeurosis, covered on the inferior surface 

 by an extremely thick layer of mucous glands, and on both sur- 

 faces by mucous membrane. This anterior part is much less 

 movable than the posterior part ; it forms a relatively horizontal 

 continuation backwards of the hard palate, and upon it chiefly 

 the tensor palati acts. The crest on the posterior part of the 

 under surface of the palate bone, to which the tensor palati is 

 described as being attached, would seem to be developed rather 

 as a protecting ledge to save the posterior palatine artery 

 — which lies more or less under cover of it — from pressure. 



Pharynx. 



I was anxious to devise some dissections of the pharynx in 

 hardened bodies which would give a better view of that cavity 

 than the ordinary mesial and transverse sections. Two very 

 satisfactory specimens were the result. The first was made as 

 follows :— The head and neck having been removed from the 

 trunk of a hardened subject, a knife was introduced into the 

 lower part of the oesophagus, whence it was carried transversely 

 outwards, first on one side, then on the other, cutting through 

 everything until the skin was reached and divided. Then the 

 knife was again introduced higher up, and the same process 

 repeated until the base of the skull was reached, when the skull 

 was divided transversely with a fine saw, and the anterior half 



