Till-: I.XTEIiNAL //./.' MiTERIES. 55:: 



:s a portion of its surface, enlaces it with numerous filaments, and is so 

 ly associated with it in all its fl< xnositics us to form but a single cord 

 with it. 



' In front, it is margined, though for a short distance, by its satellite 

 \i in, which for tho whole of its track rests on the lateral faces of the two 

 lirst phalanges. 



44 At its upper part, near its origin, and on the lateral portions of the 

 mctaearpo-phuhuigL'al articulation, the digital artery is crossed from behind 

 to before by the anterior branch of the plantar nerve, and it is covered for 

 the whole of its extent by tho fascia which continues the proper tunic of tho 

 plantar cushion, whose lateral ligamentous band cuts its direction obliquely 

 from above to below and behind to before, at the middle portion of the first 

 phalanx. 1 " 



Collateral divisions. These arc : 1. At tho fetlock, numerous fine 

 branches distributed to tho rnetacarpo-phiilangeal articulation, but par- 

 ticularly to the sesanioid sheath, and the tendons lodged in it. 



2. To the environs of the upper extremity of the first phalanx, a slightly 

 ascending and sometimes voluminous twig, for tho tissue of the ergot (the 

 horny tubercle behind the fetlock). 



3. Towards the middle of the same bone, the vessel named by Percivall 

 the perpendicular artery, and correctly so, for it arises at a right angle from 

 tho digital artery to divide almost immediately afterwards into two series of 

 ramifications anterior and posterior: The anterior branches are in nearly 

 every instance two principal : one ascending, passing beneath tho check 

 band of the extensor tendon, and climbing to the capsular ligament of the 

 fetlock joint to meet the arterial divisions furnished directly to that ligament 

 by tho collateral artery of the cannon ; the other descending, which reaches 

 the side of tho second phalanx, where its ramuscules anastomose with the 

 coronary circle and the circumflex artery of the coronary substance (cushion). 

 The posterior ramifications consist most frequently of two principal branches, 

 one ascending, the other descending ; these insinuate themselves between 

 the flexor tendons and tho sesamoid ligaments, to be distributed to these 

 organs, but especially to tho synovial membrane lining the large sesamoidean 

 sheath. Sometimes it is seen to arise alone from the digital artery. It must 



be noted, that tho divisions furnished by the anterior branches of this 

 perpendicular artery communicate with those of the opposite side in front 

 of the first phalanx, either above or below the principal extensor of the 

 digit; and that tho posterior branches exhibit a scries of analogous anasto- 

 moses. The body of the first phalanx is therefore enveloped on every sido 

 by an ark-rial plexus. 



4. At different elevations on the first ana second phalanges, several 

 tendinous and cutaneous twigs, which aro of no importance. 



5. The artery of the plantar cushion, which arises at tho superior border 

 of tho lateral cartilage, is directed obliquely backward and downward, and 

 placed within tho posterior border of that cartilage, to bo distributed to 

 tin- middle portion of tho complementary apparatus of tho third phalanx, as 

 v. 11 as to the villous tissue and the coronet. The branch expended in tho 

 latter sometimes proceeds directly from tho digital artery; it is a very 

 remarkable veessel, is inflected from before to behind, crossing tho posterior 

 IxmU-r of the pedal cartilage, creeping on th" internal face or in tho texture 

 of tho skin, a little above tho coronet, parallel with that portion of tho 



1 //. Bonfey. 'Troitc do 1'Organisation .lu 1'i, ,1 .lu C'li. val.' Paris, 1851. 



