



MR. J. C. GALTON ON DASYPUS SKXCIXCTUS. 55a 



Quadriceps extensor *.— This compound muscle is made up of the following ele- 



ments 



a. Bectus.—A comparatively slender, fusiform dip, thick. 4 in the middle, and taper- 

 ing towards its origin and insertion. It arises from a smooth oval facet upon the 

 ilium, situated immediately above, but slight ly posterior to the cotyloid cavity. It lakes 

 a perfectly straight course to its insertion into the upper edge of the patella, above the 

 points of insertion of the other components of the extensor. 



. Vastus externus.—A. large fleshy mass, arising from t lie greater part of the external 

 aspect of the femur. Its highest fibres of origin are derived from a portion of the inner 

 face of the great trochanter, and from the outer and posterior aspect of the same tube- 

 rosity; the space, too, intervening between the third and the above-mentioned trochanter 

 is filled up by fibres of origin of this muscle. The muscle arises, moreover, from the 

 whole superior aspect of the third trochanter, also from the outer part of the anterior 

 face of the rest of the femur as far as the root of the condyles. It is inserted into the 

 superior edge of the patella, to the outer side of the insertion of the rectus. 



y. Vastus internus.—Is much smaller than the preceding factor; it arises from the 

 superior and inner aspect of the femur, from the space intervening between the " greater" 

 and "lesser" trochanters to the root of the condyles. It finds insertion at the upper 

 edge of the patella, to the inner side of the termination of the rectus. 



No distinct factor answering to the crureus appeared to be present. 



Sartorius. — A very delicate muscle, which arises from 1 he outer edge of the tendon of 

 the psoas parvus, at the distance of about half an inch from the insertion of the latter. 

 It passes downwards, diagonally, along the inner aspect of the thigh, as a thin, strap- 

 like slip, and terminatesin the aponeurotic fascia which covers the inner face of the 

 knee and leg. 



This muscle would appear to play the part, in the animal to which it belongs, of a kind 

 of tensor fascice femoris intemus. 



I have not found any description of a similar origin of this muscle in any other 



animal. 



According to Meckel 2 , the sartorius in the Ai takes origin from the aponeurosis of the 

 external oblique ; but this statement is contradicted by the editor of the second edition 

 of Cuvier's ■ Lecons,' who declares that the muscle in question arises from the ilium 3 . 



That, however, which Meckel has stated erroneously of the Sloth, takes place, if 

 Krause's testimony be trustworthy, in the Rabbit, in which animal the sartorius is 

 described as taking origin from the fascia of the external oblique, in the middle of Po 



part* 8 ligament 



3 



Gracilis. — A slender, broad, but thin, wafer-like muscle, having an extensiv 



- 



and insertion. Its origin, which is shaped thus > (right side), is derived from the adjacent 

 portions of the os pubis and ischium, from the last inch anteriorly of the superior edge 

 of the former bone, beginning where the origin of the pectineus terminates, and from the 

 first inch anteriorly of the inferior edge of the latter bone. 



1 Cuvier, Anatomie Comparee, pi. 259. figs. 2 & 3, pi. 260. 9 Op. cit. p. 614. 



3 



Vol. i. p. 519. 



Kaninchen 





i 



