PLATE XX. 

 THE FRONT OF THIGH WITH THE SARTORIUS CUT. 



In this dissection the sartorius has been cut through and removed, as well as the 

 fibrous tissue which forms the covering of Hunter's canal, exposing the femoral artery 

 and long saphenous nerve. 



Hunter's Canal. After the femoral artery leaves Scarpa's triangle and gets under 

 the cover of the sartorius it lies in a groove between the vastus internus externally 

 and the adductor longus and magnus internally and behind. Here it is covered over by 

 a layer of fibrous tissue, which stretches across from the adductor to the vastus ; thus it 

 lies in a musculo-aponeurotic canal, called Hunter's canal, which extends from near the 

 apex of Scarpa's triangle to the opening under adductor magnus. The canal contains 

 the femoral artery and vein and the long saphenous nerve ; the latter may occasionally 

 run in the fibrous tissue forming the roof. 



The plate also shows well the relation of the long saphenous nerve to the nerve 



to the vastus internus. 



The nerve (11), which is a branch of the superficial division of the obturator, should 

 be carefully traced down from its exit between the adductor longus and magnus ; it 

 will be found to send a small twig to the femoral artery and then to pass on, com- 

 municating near the edge of the sartorius with a branch from the internal cutaneous 

 and one from the long saphenous, thus forming an intercommunication, which has 

 been called the obturator plexus (subsartorial), and from which branches are distributed 

 to the skin on the inner side of the knee and hamstrings. It is important clinically to 

 remember this in connection with hip-joint disease, for one of the early signs commonly 

 present is pain over the inner side of the knoe-joint, and it must be remembered that 

 the same division of the obturator sends a branch to the hip-joint, and this being 

 irritated the pain is referred to the skin supplied by its cutaneous branch. 



