1004 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 



lateral side of the internal iliac vessels and the ureter, and runs forward in the 

 extraperitoneal fat, below the obliterated hypogastric artery and along the 

 upper part of the medial surface of the obturator internus to the upper part of the 

 obturator foramen, where it passes through the obturator canal below the so- 

 called horizontal ramus of the pubis and above the obturator membrane, into the 

 upper part of the thigh. It is accompanied in the pelvis and the obturator canal 

 by the obturator artery, which lies at a lower level than the nerve, and it divides 



Fig. 767. — Femoral and Obturator Nerves. (Ellis.) 

 Femoral vein Femoral artery 



Pectineus 

 Obturator (anterior div.) 



Obturator (posterior 

 division) 



Adductor longus 



Adductor brevis — rr; 



Obturator (anterior 

 division) 



Gracilis 



Adductor magnus 

 Geniculate branch of obturator 



Semi-membranosus 



Sartorius 



Iliacus 



Femoral 



Psoas 



Tensor fasciae latas 



Profunda artery 



Pectineus 

 Rectus femoris 



Saphenous 



Nerve to vastus medialis 



Adductor longus 

 Femoral artery 



Genu suprema artery 

 Patellar branch of saphenous 



in the obturator canal into two branches, an anterior and a posterior, which 

 supply the adductor group of muscles, the hip and knee-joints, and the skin on the 

 medial aspect of the leg. 



The anterior branch of the obturator has a twig joining it with the accessory 

 obturator nerve, if that nerve is present, and then descends behind the pectineus 

 and adductor longus and in front of the obturator externus and adductor magnus 

 muscles (fig. 767). Its branches are: — 



1. A twig to the accessory obturator nerve if the latter is i)resent. 



2. An articular branch to the hip-joint. 



3. Muscular branches to the gracilis, adductor lonKUs, and, usually, to the adductor 

 brevis. 



4. Two terminal branches, of whicli one is distributed to the femoral artery and the other 

 communicates with the sub.sartorial plexus. The subsartorial branch is occasionally longer 



1 



