THE HIND EXTIIE5IITY. 257 



PART IX.— SPECIAL ANATOMY. 

 The Hind Extremity. 



From an incision wliicli the operator fii'st makes along 

 the central line of the quarters he dissects the skin back 

 over the external surface of the quarter, and posteriorly as 

 far as the incision originally made along the central and 

 inferior line of the body towards the root of the tail. 

 By so doing he exposes a wide-sj^read and rather thick 

 layer of substance of an elastic fibro-adipose material, 

 which covers the muscles of the quarter, and anteriorly 

 blends with the lumbar faschia, while superiorly, in blend- 

 ing with its corresponding layer from the opposite side, it 

 becomes firmly attached to the superior vertebral ligament 

 in the sacral region. This faschia of the quarter inferiorly 

 is imperceptibly blended with the faschia lata or the faschia 

 covering the thigh, and on removing it we find that gluteus 

 maximus and gluteus externus are attached to it to a con- 

 siderable extent, whence care is required in the process 

 to avoid injuring the appearance of the subject. By its 

 removal we expose the 



Gluteus externus, a Y-shaped muscle, that is to say, 

 one with two points of origin, which converge to a common 

 centre of insertion. The anterior part we shall find arises 

 in common with tensor vaginae femoris from the inferior 

 part of the antero -inferior spinous process of the ilium, 

 while the posterior is attached to the spines and transverse 

 processes of the second and third sacral bones. The mus- 

 cular fibres of both these parts are more or less attached to 

 the under surface of the gluteal faschia, and blend opposite 

 the anterior tubercle of trochanter major, where they be- 

 come, for the most part, tendinous, and from this they run 

 to the trochanter minor externus, where they are firmly 

 inserted. Over the anterior tubercle this tendon plays freely 



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