634 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



almost entirely limited to the size aud. extent of femoral attachments, 

 and presented but little interest. The vasti I have sometimes found 

 bilaminar, and this is, I think, more frequent than is usually sup- 

 posed : I have noted five cases of this arrangement in the internal, and 

 three in the external muscle ; and also met with several others of 

 which I made no record. 



The sub-cruroeus was absent in three of the forty limbs ex- 

 amined. 



Adductor longus.^-Tlas, muscle was divided into two lamellae along 

 its whole length, in three cases of which I made notes. One of these 

 was among the forty of which the femoral muscles were specially 

 examined. In cases recorded by Wood and by Macalister this muscle 

 received a slip from the pectineus, which joined the former by crossing 

 in front of the profunda femoris artery. A muscular fasciculus 

 passing to the inner side of the vastus internus, by crossing in front of 

 the aponeurotic sheath, which forms the anterior wall of Hunter's canal, 

 was found in one case. 



Adductor Irevis. — In a considerable proportion of the cases ex- 

 amined this muscle could, with considerable ease, be separated into 

 two portions, the line of division being marked by the passage of a 

 perforating artery. Clason (TJpsala lakaroforen forhandl. 1872, vn. 

 599) describes the muscle as being separated in this way into two 

 segments — a superior, somewhat transverse, adducting part, and an 

 inferior portion, more vertical in direction, and chiefly concerned in 

 the act of flexion. 



Adductor magnus. — The only notable variety I have found in this 

 muscle is the complete separation of the segment which goes to the 

 inner condyle of the femur. This I have noted in three instances, of 

 which only one occurred among the forty above referred to. 



Adductor gracilis {rectus femoris internus). — This muscle rarely 

 presents any considerable degree of deviation from the description 

 usually given in our text-books. Tendinous fibres are sometimes 

 formed about the junction of the middle with the lower third of the 

 thigh, which blend with the fascia lata, after a very short course. 

 This I have noticed in four instances. 



Pectineus. — The portion of the fibres of this muscle which arise 

 from the ilio-pectineal eminence occasionally form an accessory head 

 of origin separate from the rest of the muscle. This happened once 

 among forty specimens consecutively examined, and I have also noted 

 its occiTrrence in two other instances. A few of its outer fibres I 

 have once seen inserted into the front of the hip-joint capsule. 



Gluteus maximus. — A thinner deep lamina, formed by those fibres 

 of the muscle which arose from the great sacro-sciatic and posterior 

 sacro-iliac ligaments, was separated from the superficial part of the 

 muscle by a distinct layer of connective tissue. This occurred five 

 times in forty subjects examined. In three instances the origin of the 

 muscle reached to the second coccygeal vertebra only ; in all the 

 others there was the usual attachment to the third piece. An acces- 



