ADDUCTOR BREVIS MUSCLE. 163 



tendon of insertion is closely united to the adductor magnus and 

 vastus internus. 



Action. With the femur movable, it will flex the hip-joint, and use on 

 with the aid of the other adductors will carry inwards the limb, so femur > 

 as to cross the thigh-bones. In walking it helps the other adductors 

 to project the limb. 



With the femur fixed, the muscle holds and tilts forwards the pelvis, on pelvis. 



Dissection. The adductor brevis muscle, with the obturator Dissection 

 nerve and the profunda vessels, will be arrived at by reflecting the of 

 two last muscles (fig. 62, p. 165). On cutting through thepectineus accessory 

 near the pubis and throwing it down, the dissector may find occa- 

 sionally the small accessory nerve of the obturator, which turns 

 beneath the outer border ; if this is present, its branches to the hip- 

 joint and the obturator nerve are to be traced out. The adductor cut adduc- 

 longus is then to be divided near its origin, and raised with care, so 

 as not to destroy the branches of the obturator nerve beneath : its 

 tendon of insertion also is to be detached from that of the adductor 

 magnus beneath it, to see the branches of the profunda artery. 



Now the adductor brevis will be laid bare. A part of the to show 

 obturator nerve crosses over this muscle to the femoral artery, and 

 sends an offset to the plexus at the inner side of the thigh ; and 

 a deeper part of the same nerve lies beneath the muscle. The 

 muscle should be separated from the subjacent adductor magnus, 

 whereon the deep branch of the nerve lies. In this last step of the trace 

 dissection, the student should follow the slender articular branch obturator 

 of the obturator nerve through the fibres of the adductor magnus and branch 

 fi\ i r *c\\ * knee- 



(P- 1<30 )- joint. 



The accessory obturator nerve (Schmidt) is derived from the trunk Accessory 

 of the obturator, near its origin, and passes from the abdomen over obturator 

 the brim of the pelvis. In the thigh it turns beneath the pectineus, 

 and joins the superficial branch of the obturator nerve ; it supplies 

 an offset to the hip-joint "with the articular artery, and occasionally 

 one to the under-surface of the pectineus. 



The ADDUCTOR BREVIS (fig. 62, D) has a fleshy and tendinous Adductor 

 origin, about one inch and a half in depth, from the front of the nllroVat 

 pubis below the adductor longus, and close outside the gracilis origin, 

 (fig. 47). It is inserted, behind the pectineus, into all the line and wide at 

 leading from the linea aspera to the small trochanter (fig. 61). 



In front of the muscle are the pectineus and the adductor p ar ts in 

 longus, with the superficial part of the obturator nerve, and the front 

 profunda artery ; but it is gradually uncovered by the adductor 

 longus below, and the contiguous parts of the muscles are blended 

 at their insertion into the femur. Behind the muscle is the adductor behind, 

 magnus, with the deep piece of the obturator nerve and a branch 

 of the internal circumflex artery. In contact with the upper border and at upper 

 lies the obturator externus (F), and the internal circumflex artery border - 

 passes between the two. 



Action. This muscle adducts the limb with slight flexion of the Use, 

 hip-joint, like the pectineus. And if it acts from the femur, it 

 will balance and move forwards the pelvis. 



M 2 



