278 



THE ARTICULATIONS, OR JOINTS 



the odontoid process, and, passing obliquely upward and outward, are inserted 

 into the rough depressions on the inner side of the condyles of the occipital bone. 

 In the triangular interval left between these ligaments another strong fibrous 

 cord, the middle odontoid ligament (ligamentum apicis dentis), may be seen, which 

 passes almost perpendicularly from the apex of the odontoid process to the 

 anterior margin of the foramen magnum, being intimately blended with the 

 deep portion of the anterior occipito-atlantal ligament and upper fasciculus of 

 the transverse ligament of the atlas. 



Movements. The odontoid ligaments serve to limit the extent to which rotation of the 

 cranium may be carried; hence, they have received the name of check ligament*. 



In addition to these ligaments, which connect the atlas and axis to the skull, the ligamentum 

 nuchae must be regarded as one of the ligaments by which the vertebral column is connected with 

 the cranium. It is described on page 272. 



THIN LAYER OF POSTERIOR COMMON 

 LIGAMENT SEPARATED FROM THE 

 POSTERIOR OCCIPITO-AXIAL LIGAMENT 



ANTERIOR OCCIPITO- 

 ATLANTAL LIGAMENT 



POSTERIOR OCCIPITO- 

 AXIAL LIGAMENT 

 CRUCIFORM 

 LIGAMENT 

 MIDDLE ODONTOID 

 LIGAMENT 



ANTERIOR ARCH 

 OF ATLAS 

 ODONTOID PROC- 

 ESS OF AXIS 

 ARTICULAR 

 CAVITY 



TRANSVERSE LIGA- 

 MENT OF ATLAS 



ANTERIOR ATLO- 

 AXIAL LIGAMENT 



INTERVERTEBRAL 



FIBROCARTILAGE 



ANTERIOR COMMON 

 LIGAM 



POSTERIOR OCCIP- 

 ITO- ATLANTAL 

 LIGAMENT 



POSTERIOR 



'ARCH OF 



ATLAS 



SUBOCCIPITAL OR FIRST 

 CERVICAL NERVE 



NTERVERTE- 

 BRAL FORAMEN 



POSTERIOR COMMON 

 LIGAMENT 



FIG. 228. Median section through the occipital bone and first three cervical vertebra? with ligaments. 



(Spalteholz.) 



Applied Anatomy. The ligaments which unite the component parts of the vertebrae together 

 are so strong, and these bones are so interlocked by the arrangement of their articulating processes, 

 that dislocation is very uncommon, and, indeed, unless accompanied by fracture, seldom occurs, 

 except in the upper part of the neck. Dislocation of the occiput from the atlas has only been 

 recorded in one or two cases; but dislocation of the atlas from the axis, with rupture of the trans- 

 verse ligament, is much more common; it is the mode in which death is produced in some cases 

 of execution by hanging. In the lower part of the neck that is, below the third cervical vertebra 

 dislocation unattended by fracture occasionally takes place. 



