548 THE ARTERIES. 



bifurcates into the subcutaneous abdominal artery, and the anterior dorsal 

 artery of the penis. 



The subcutaneous abdominal artery is directed forward on the superficial 

 face of the abdominal tunic, bordering in its course the insertion of the 

 suspensory ligament of the sheath. Arriving at the anterior extremity 

 of that ligament, it terminates in several subcutaneous divisions, one of 

 which is inflected beyond the umbilicus to anastomose en arcade with 

 a similar branch from the opposite artery. It gives off twigs to the scrotum, 

 sheath, superficial inguinal glands, skin, &c. (Fig. 275, 7). 



The anterior dorsal artery of the penis gains the superior border of 

 that organ, after supplying one or two scrotal branches, and separates into 

 two portions ; one, posterior, meets the dorsal cavernous artery of the penis 

 and anastomoses with it ; the other, anterior, longer, more voluminous, and 

 very flexuous during retraction of the penis, follows the dorsal border of the 

 organ to its anterior extremity, where it enters the erectile tissue that forms 

 this part. From the two branches of this anterior dorsal artery, there are 

 given off, as in the posterior one, ramuscules which penetrate the corpus 

 cavernosum, and the walls of the urethra ; they give, besides, some praeputial 

 twigs (Fig. 275, 8). 



In the FEMALE, the external pudic artery offers a disposition which, if not 

 similar, is yet analogous to that just indicated. As in the male, this vessel 

 traverses the inguinal canal, and after leaving it divides into two branches : 

 one, the anterior, or subcutaneous abdominal artery, the other the posterior, or 

 mammary artery. The last, the most voluminous, represents the dorsal 

 artery of the penis. It distributes several branches to the mammary tissue, 

 and is prolonged between the thighs by a perineal branch, which terminates 

 .in the inferior commissure of the vulva, after giving off glandular and 

 cutaneous branches. 



2. Profunda Femoris, Great Posterior Muscular Artery of the Thigh, or Deep 



Muscular Artery. (Fig. 277, 14). 



Arising in common with the prepubic artery, the profunda femoris passes 

 backward, penetrates between the iliacus and the pectineus muscles, afterwards 

 between the latter and the external obturator muscle. In this way it arrives 

 beneath the deep face of the adductors of the thigh, when it becomes inflected 

 behind the femur, and disappears in the substance of the internal and 

 posterior crural muscles by ascending branches, which anastomose with the 

 ischiatic artery, and descending and internal branches, whose terminal 

 ramifications open into those of the obturator artery, 



The principal twigs of the coxo-femoral articulation are derived from this 

 vessel. 



3. Superficial Muscular, or Great Anterior Muscular Artery. (Fig. 277, 15.) 



Smaller than the preceding, and commencing opposite to it, but a little 

 lower, this artery passes downwards, outwards, and forwards, runs between 

 the long adductor of the leg and the musculo-tendinous cone which terminates 

 in common the psoas magnus and iliacus, furnishes some ramuscules to these 

 muscles, dips into the interstice separating the vastus internus from the 

 anterior rectus of the thigh, and is lost in the mass of the triceps cruris. 



This vessel, therefore, resembles the iliaco-femoral artery, which we 

 observed to enter this triceps by penetrating between the anterior rectus and 

 the vastus externus. 



