150 TOPOGRAPHICAL ANATOMY OF THE 



the middle uterine artery (a. uterina media), which gains the cornu and 

 part of the body of the uterus by passing, in a tortuous fashion, between 

 the two layers of the broad ligament. The middle uterine artery 

 anastomoses with the uterine branch (cranial uterine artery) of the 

 ovarian artery. 



(3) TruncuH jnideiidoepigastriciis. — The pudendo-epigastric trunk 

 is generally described as arising just as the external iliac is about 

 to become the femoral artery, but not infrequently its point of origin 

 is distal to the pecten of the pubis, that is, distal to the level at which 

 the external iliac artery is arbitrarily considered to end. The most 

 common arrangement is for the trunk to leave the parent vessel along 

 with the deep femoral ; that is to say, a short, thick vessel forms 

 a common artery of origin and divides into the deep femoral and 

 pudendo-epigastric trunk. The trunk follows a very short course 

 round the caudal border of the inguinal ligament (of Poupart) and ends 

 under the peritoneum by dividing into the external pudendal and caudal 

 epigastric arteries, both of which have already been dissected (pages 76 

 and 85). 



Two groups of lymph glands should be recognised at the present 

 stage of the dissection. The medial iliac glands (lymphoglandulse 

 iliacje mediates) form a considerable group about the origin of the 

 external iliac artery. The lateral iliac glands (lymphoglanduloe 

 iliacse laterales) are few and small, and occupy the angle of divergence 

 of the two chief branches of the deep circumflex iliac artery. 



Vena cava caudalis. — This large vein begins, to the right of the 

 median plane, at the fifth lumbar vertebra, where it is formed by the 

 union of the right and left common iliac veins, which drain the limbs 

 and the pelvis. The vessel runs forwards on the ventral surface of the 

 psoas minor muscle and along the right side of the aorta for some 

 distance, but ultimately the right crus of the diaphragm separates the 

 vein from the artery. The last part of the abdominal course of the 

 vena cava is between the liver and the diaphragm, where it occupies 

 the fossa venae cava^ of the former organ. Not infrequently liver- 

 tissue completely encircles the vein as it lies in the fossa. Finally, the 

 vein reaches the foramen vena? cavae of the diaphragm by which it 

 enters the thorax on its way to the right atrium of the heart. 



The tributaries of the caudal vena cava are as follows: — (1) 

 Common iliac veins (vv. iliaca^ communes); (2) lumbar veins (vv. 

 lumbales), five in number ; (3) deep circumfiex iliac veins (vv. 

 circumflexa? ilium profunda^) ; (4) internal spenniatic veins (vv. sper- 

 maticae internae) ; (5) renal veins (vv. renales) ; (6) hepatic veins 

 (vv. hepaticae) ; and (7) phrenic veins (vv. phrenicae). 



