1570 



HUMAN ANATOMY. 



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

 pharyngeal mucous membrane. (2) A nbro-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 uvula? 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. 



v 



iiik/ ; ^ Giands 



.7; Jt-a* \*r**S*'~ 



Glands 



Aponeurotic tissu 



Oral mucous membrane 



Obliquely cut 

 muscles 



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 papilhe 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 



il>le. 



The tensor palati ( dilatator tubes} (Fig. 1330) arises from the scaphoid fossa at 

 tin- root of the internal ptery^oid plate, from the spine of the sphenoid, and from the 

 outer ineinlnanous part of the Knstarhian tube. It descends vertically along the 

 internal pterv^oid plate as a round, red, and distinct muscle, which becomes tendinous 

 a^ it turn> imvard under the hanmlar process at right angles to its previous course, 

 alter 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. 



