THE INTERNAL ILIAC ARTERY. 



561 



where the meso-rectum is abnormally short it may be impossible, without unjustifiable force, to 

 compress the artery on the right side. 



Internal Iliac Artery (Fig. 312). 



The internal iliac artery supplies the walls and viscera of the pelvis, the 

 generative organs, and inner side of the thigh. It is a short thick vessel, 

 smaller in the adult than the external iliac, and about an inch and a half 



Ileo-lumbar. 



Gluteal. 



FIG. 312. Arteries of the pelvis. 



in length. It arises at the point of bifurcation of the common iliac, and, 

 passing downward to the upper margin of the great sacro-sciatic foramen, divides 

 into two large trunks, an anterior and posterior ; from its anterior division 

 a partially obliterated cord, the liypogastric artery, extends forward to the 

 bladder. 



Relations. In front, with the ureter, which separates it from the peri- 

 toneum. Behind, with the internal iliac vein, the lumbo-sacral cord, and 

 Pyriformis muscle. By its outer side, near its origin, with the Psoas magnus 

 muscle. 



36 



