568 A MANUAL OF ANATOMY. 



nerve crosses over the front of the artery from its outer to 

 its inner side. Leaving the femoral artery, when it turns 

 backward through the opening in the adductor magnus, the 

 nerve continues downward between the tendons of the 

 sartorius (in front) and the gracilis (behind) and becomes 

 superficial just below the inner side of the knee joint. 

 Here it joins the internal saphenous vein, which it accom- 

 panies along the inner side of the leg to the ankle, and 

 terminates a short distance below the internal malleolus. 



While under cover of the sartorius muscle the internal 

 saphenous nerve gives off the patellar branch which pierces 

 the sartorius and runs downward and forward to the front 

 of the knee. It supplies the integument over the inner 

 side of the knee, leg, and ankle. 



The Nerve to the Pectineus Muscle. 



This is a small but constant branch given off from the 

 anterior crural just under Poupart's ligament. It passes 

 downward and inward behind the sheath of the femoral 

 vessels, with which it is closely united to the front of the 

 pectineus muscle. 



The Muscular Branches of the Anterior Crural. Figs. 



117, 119, 120. 



They are distributed to the sartorius (usually from the mid- 

 dle cutaneous), rectus femoris, vastus externus and internus, 

 crureus, and pectineus muscles. The hip joint receives a 

 branch from the nerve to the rectus. The articular branches 

 to the knee joint are filaments from the branches to the 

 rectus, vasti, and crureus muscles, which passing onward 

 through the muscles terminate in the upper part of the 

 capsule and synovial membrane of the knee joint. 



Scarpa's Triangle. Fig. 1 1 7. 



This is a triangular space located upon the front of the 



