248 CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. 



of the latter, it gets between them and the bone, and is distri- 

 buted along the external margin of the little toe. 



The four Digital Arteries of the foot arise next successively 

 from the arcus plantaris, at or near the metatarsal intervals. 

 They run along the inferior surface of the interosseous muscles, 

 getting to the bases of the'ftrst phalanges above the transver- 

 salis pedis. Each artery there bifurcates, so as to supply the 

 opposed surfaces of the adjacent toes, in the same way that the 

 digital arteries of the hand are distributed. 



The digital artery of the first metatarsal interval which 

 comes from the internal extremity of the arcus plantaris, where 

 the anterior tibial artery joins the latter, goes forwards con- 

 cealed by the flexor brevis of the great toe: just behind the se- 

 samoid bones, it sends a branch which supplies the internal side 

 of the great toe, being its internal digital artery, and anastomoses 

 with the internal plantar artery. What remains of it, is still 

 a trunk of considerable magnitude, which advancing to the 

 space between the first phalanx of the great toe and of the toe 

 next to it, there bifurcates, as mentioned, so as to supply the 

 opposite sides of these two toes. 



The Perforating Arteries, as they are called, are of two kinds, 

 the anterior and the posterior. The former arise from the con- 

 vexity of the plantar arch, and being destined principally to the 

 interosseous muscles, anastomose at the anterior end of the lat- 

 ter with the branches from the metatarsal artery, which supply 

 their superior surface. The posterior perforating arteries come 

 also from the plantar arch, and penetrating the posterior end of 

 the interosseous spaces, anastomose also with the metatarsal 

 arteries on the dorsum of the foot. 



The preceding trunks of the internal and of the external plan- 

 tar arteries are the principal ones which are found in the bot- 

 tom of the foot, but from them there arise an immense number 

 of arterioles; which, descending vertically between the inter- 

 stices of the muscles and of the aponeurosis plantaris, supply 

 the adipose matter and the skin of the sole of the foot, so as to 

 render them extremely vascular. 



