vi nous system and those coming from tho tendons and ligaments, forming a 

 fasciculus of five or six thick converging veins which unite in t\v<> lar^e 

 ascend ing branchcH. These anastomose with each other IK fore their <!.- 

 tinitive junction with tho two peripheral branches resulting from the supi-r 

 tieial cartilaginous plexus, with which they concur in constituting the 

 digital vein." 



6. Internal, or Intra-osseous Venous Apparatus. 



" Girard, tho younger, and Rigot have denied that tho plantar artery had, 

 in the interior of the phalanx, a satellite venous system. These two able 

 anatomists committed au error. 



" Tho disposition of tlie venous apparatus in tho interior of the phalanx 

 is absolutely identical with that of the arterial. 



" The satellite radicular venules of the terminal arteries converge, by 

 forming successive anastomoses, towards the semilunar sinus, into which 

 they enter by tho anterior interosseous canals, ascending and descending, and 

 by which the emergent arteries from the semilunar anastomosis pass out- 

 wards. There they join into a semicircular canal, the satellite of that 

 anastomosis, which is continued backwards by two efferent veins that follow 

 the posterior canals of the semilunar sinus, emerge by the plantar foramina, 

 pass into the fissure of the same name, ascend within tho basilar process, 

 lie at the internal face of tho cartilaginous plate, in one of the infractuosities 

 with which it is sculptured, and concur in the formation of the deep layer 

 of the cartilaginous plexus. 



" Beside these veins converging towards tho cartilaginous plexus, there is 

 a small number of divergent ones which follow the track of tho arteries, and 

 pass into the podophyllous plexus through the anterior porosities of tho 

 phalanx. 



. " The dissection of specimens injected by the veins puts this arrangement 

 of tho venous apparatus in the interior of the os pedis beyond a doubt. 



" But is this internal venous system limited to the group of vessels which 

 are satellites of tho arteries, or is it not rather extended over a vaster 

 surface, and may not all tho arcolse of tho spongy tissue of tho bone bo 

 considered as a dependency of it ? 



" This way of viewing it would seem to be supported by the result of 

 certain injections, in which the material introduced by tho neighbouring 

 veins has filled all tho internal spongiolae of tho bony tissue ; though this 

 was probably due to an accident in the operation, and it is presumable that 

 the direct passage of the venous injection into the areolao of the spongy 

 tissue arose from a rupture in the vascular walls. If the tissue of the 

 phalanx formed a kind of diverticulum for the venous system, as the opinion 

 just given would admit, operations performed on this part during life, when 

 the texture of tho bono is deeply involved, ought to bo followed by hae- 

 morrhage from tho open orifices of these aerolao a circumstance which 

 does not take place. 



" It does not appear, therefore, that there is in tho structure of the third 

 phalanx any departure from tho general plan on which bones are constructed, 

 and we think that its internal voinous system is limited to the vessels, very 

 numerous as they are, which accompany tho arterial divisions." 





