204 CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. 



least when this is their arrangement, for the origin of these ves- 

 sels is attended with much variety), runs forward, invested in the 

 subcutaneous cellular substance of the scrotum, sending ramifi- 

 cations to the tunica vaginalis and the skin, and continuing 

 forward upon the penis, where it inosculates with the superficial 

 ramifications ofthe internal pudic. 



The Femoral Artery. 

 Regarding the profunda femoris as a limb of the external 

 iliac, we descend from the latter to the femoral artery, the direct 

 continuation ofthe same trunk. This artery proceeds in an oblique 

 direction down the haunch, preserving nearly the line of its 

 middle; and so speedily afterwards disappears from our view, 

 and from no part of it being made visible by the removal of the 

 femoral faschia, that it would seem as if it directly plunged deep 

 among the muscles of the thigh; this however is by no means the 

 case, for the upper half of the vessel may be considered, in an 

 anatomical sense, as superficial : an incision carried along the 

 anterior prominent border of the gracilis, detaching it from the 

 sartorius, will (the latter being pushed forward) at any point in 

 the upper half of the thigh, immediately expose the vessel*. The 

 beginning of the femoral trunk, which is curved outward, is 

 covered by lymphatic glands of the groin; it is next overlapped 

 by the thin posterior edge of the sartorius, and subsequently by 

 the anterior border ofthe gracilis, running, rather below the mid- 

 dle of the thigh, within a triangular space formed by the a])~ 

 proximation of the two ; here the vessel dips deeply into the 

 muscular substance, having the long head of the triceps on its 

 inner side, the bone on its outer, after which it takes its course 

 between the heads of the gastrocnemius externus into the hollow 

 at the back ofthe stifle, wherein we find it close to the joint, but 

 nearer to the outer than the inner side : opposite to the head ofthe 

 tibia it bifurcates into the anterior and posterior tibial arteries. 

 The femoral trunk is accompanied by its vein, which courses at 

 first behind, and afterwards gets to the outer side of it; and by 

 the principal branch of the crural nerve, which runs for nearly 

 one-third of the way likewise along its outer side : they are all 

 three invested in some loose cellular substance. Its anterior 

 branches are — 1. The inguinal ; one of large size arising in the 

 groin, covered at its origin by the lymphatic glands, to which it 

 sends twigs; it then crosses under the sartorius, to which it also 



* The vena saplicna major will prove a safe guide for the knife; and 

 the artery will be found most aeccssiblc at the ])Iuce where that vessel 

 ccHses to he visible under the skin, or, in other words, ce;.scs to be subcu- 

 taneous. 



