THE TRACHEA. 



965 



Over the posterior surface of the epiglottis, in the aryteno-epiglottidean folds, 

 and less regularly in some other parts, taste-buds, similar to those in the tongue, 

 are found. 



THE TRACHEA (Fig. 533). 



The trachea, or windpipe, is a cartilaginous and membranous cylindrical tube, 

 flattened posteriorly, which extends from the lower part of the larynx, on a level 

 with the sixth cervical vertebra, to opposite the fourth, or sometimes the fifth, 



Superior 

 Cornu. 



FIG. 533. Front view of cartilages of larynx ; the trachea and bronchi. 



dorsal vertebra, where it divides into two bronchi, one for each lung. The trachea 

 measures about four inches and a half in length ; its diameter, from side to side, 

 is from three-quarters of an inch to an inch, being always greater in the male 

 than in the female. 



Relations. The anterior surface of the trachea is convex, and covered in the 

 neck, from above downward, by the isthmus of the thyroid gland, the inferior 

 thyroid veins, the arteria thyroidea ima (when that vessel exists), the Sterno-hyoid 

 and Sterno-thyroid muscles, the cervical fascia, and more superficially, by the 

 anastomosing branches between the anterior jugular veins : in the thorax it is 



