412 AXGIOLOGY. 



ontwavds and downwards. At the level of the ilio-pectineal line 

 it becomes the femoral. The external iliac artery gives off the 

 circumflex ilii, and sometimes, as we have seen, the small testi- 

 cular artery. 



The Circumflex Ilii springs from the outer side of the iliac 

 near its origin, or occasionally from the aorta, crosses the psoas 

 magnus and iliacus towards the anterior iliac spine, where it 

 divides into two branches, an anterior, which ramifies in the 

 transversalis and internal oblique, anastomosing with the abdo- 

 minal branches of the intercostal and lumbar arteries ; and a 

 posterior, which crosses the abdomen just below the external iliac 

 spine, between the iliacus and internal oblique, descending in the 

 tensor fasciae latag anteriorly, and terminating in subcutaneous 

 twigs, 



FEMORAL ARTERY. 

 (Fig. 159. 1.) 

 This is the artery of the thigh, a continuation of the external 

 iliac, extending from the level of the pelvic brim to the heads of 

 the gastrocnemius muscle; it lies in the femoral space between 

 the iliacus, pectineus, and sartorius muscles, and is related with 

 the internal sapheuic nerve and satellite vein, along the pectineus 

 and vastus internus, and the posterior border of the sartorius ; it 

 then enters a ring formed by the two parts of the adductor longus 

 and the femur, and passing between the bifid origin of the 

 gastrocnemius muscle, becomes the popliteal. Two important 

 arteries are given off at the point where the iliac becomes the 

 femoral, but are best regarded as branches of the latter ; they are 

 the prepubian and arteria profunda femoris, and they generally have 

 a common origin. The branches of the femoral artery are : — 



Prepubian. I Snperficialis femoris. 



Profunda feinoris. | Small muscular. 



Saphenic, 



The Prepubian artery, a short vessel, arises in common with 

 the arteria profunda femoris at the level of the pelvic brim. 

 Crossing the crural ring it gains the posterior aspect of the 

 internal abdominal ring, and divides into the epigastric and 

 external pudic. The epigastric, or p>osterioT abdominal artery, 

 runs forwards between the small oblique and transverse muscles, 

 and along the border of the rectus abdominis and inner side of the 



