BRACHIAL, AND ITS BRANCHES. 215 



of the extensor muscles of the fore-arm, and anastomoses with 

 the recurrent branch of the radial artery. 



2. The Small Profound Artery (Art. Profunda Minor) comes 

 from the brachia!, two or three inches below the profunda ma- 

 jor, but frequently it is only a branch of the latter, and is gene- 

 rally much smaller. It is distributed superficially on the inter- 

 nal face of the triceps at its lower part, and has its terminating 

 branches reaching as far as the internal condyle. 



3 The Nutritious Artery (Art. Nutritia) is the next in order 

 from the brachial, and arises from it near the medullary fora- 

 men of the os humeri, through which it penetrates, and is distri- 

 buted to the lining membrane of the bone. It is not larger than 

 a knitting n-eedie. 



4. The Anastomotic Artery (Jlrteria Jlnastomoticd) arises from 

 the brachial below the last, and is larger than it. It lies upon 

 the lower internal part of the brachialis internus muscle, and 

 crosses the ridge leading to the internal condyle in order to 

 reach the depression between the latter and the olecranon, where 

 it anastomoses with the ulnar recurrent artery. 



The preceding is a common arrangement of the branches 

 proceeding from the brachial artery, yet deviations from it are 

 continually met with, in a deficiency or in a redundancy of these 

 collateral trunks, and in their mode of origin. An account of 

 all the varieties which are observed here would be almost end- 

 less, as every subject has some peculiarity. Several small ar- 

 teries are also sent from the brachial to the coraco-brachialis, 

 the biceps, the brachialis internus, and to the triceps muscles. 

 They, for the most part, are, simply, muscular branches, which 

 are too small and irregular to deserve specifying. 



A division of the brachial artery into two trunks, the Radial 

 and the Ulnar, will be found in a majority of subjects in front 

 of the brachialis internus muscle on a line with the elbow joint: 

 sometimes it occurs nearer the root of the coronoid process. 

 It is, however, by no means rare to see this bifurcation much 

 above the elbow. Examples of it have been witnessed at every 

 point between the latter and the arm-pit; in such cases, the 



