DISTRIBUTION OF ARTERIES. 115 



ries, external and internal, in the fore extremity, result from 

 the fork of the metacarpal ; in the hind, from that of the meta- 

 tarsal. (Their general distribution is the same, both in the 

 hind and fore feet.) They descend the fetlock upon the 

 sides of the sessamoids, in company with the veins which run 

 in front of them, and with the plantar nerves which proceed 

 behind them ; the artery then passes down to, and into the 

 substance of what is called the a fatty frog ; " it next passes 

 the inner and upper extremity of the coffin bone, and after- 

 wards to the foramen of the posterior concavity of the bone. 

 The branches of the plantar artery are many and important. 

 After detaching some small ramifications inwardly to the fet- 

 lock, posteriorly to the flexor tendons, and anteriorly to the 

 extensor tendon, it then sends off — 1. The perpendicular 

 artery. 2. The transverse artery. 3. The artery of the frog. 

 4. The lateral laminal artery. 5. The circulus arteriosus. 

 Prom the latter arise two principal sets of vessels — 1. The 

 anterior laminated arteries. 2. The inferior communicating 

 arteries, " thirteen, and sometimes fourteen, in number." 

 3. The circumflex artery. Then, again, from this vessel spring 

 the solar arteries, which may be so named from their radiated 

 arrangement. These latter are destined for the supply of the 

 sole, upon which they run in radii at equal distances, whose 

 common centre is the toe of the frog, where they end in com- 

 munications with the arteries of that body. 



THE CAROTID ARTERY. 



The right arteria innominata, having detached seven im- 

 portant branches, which vary but little in their mode of origin, 

 general course, and distribution, from the several arteries into 

 which the left division resolves itself, become the common 

 carotid — a large vessel emerging through the upper opening 

 of the chest ; it divides, as it quits the chest, into two branches, 

 called the right and left carotids. These arteries ascend, and 

 having reached the top of the larynx, the carotid of either 

 side branches into three divisions — the external and inter- 



