230 THE VISCERA. 
112).—The soft palate is the free curtain-like structure which 
forms the caudal part of the roof of the mouth. It is attached 
to the caudal border of the palatal plates and the ventral border 
of the perpendicular plates, of the palatine, and to the pterygoid 
processes and hamuli of the sphenoid, and extends some dis- 
tance caudad of the hamuli. It thus forms a rather long and 
narrow curtain separating the caudal part of the nasal cavity 
from the mouth. Caudad it ends in a free arched border (Fig. 
66, 4) which is at about the level of the epiglottis, and may lie 
against the cranial or the caudal surface of the latter. The 
narrowed passage bounded by the margin of the velum palat- 
inum dorsad and the tongue ventrad is the isthmus faucium. 
From the sides. of the velum a short distance from the caudal 
border a fold of mucosa passes ventrad to the side of the 
tongue; a short distance caudad of this a similar fold passes to 
the floor of the pharynx. These folds form the cranial and 
caudal pillars of the fauces. Between these folds is a shallow 
pocket, from the bottom of which there arises a prominent pro- 
jection or swelling which is one of the two tonsils (Fig. 95, @). 
Each tonsil is a reddish, lobulated gland, lymphoid in the 
adult, nearly a centimeter in length, and about one-third as 
long as broad, with its long axis craniocaudad. 
The velum palatinum consists of two layers of mucous 
membrane, oral and nasal, with intervening muscular and con-. 
nective tissue. The muscles of the soft palate in the cat are 
as follows: 
M. tensor veli palatini (Fig. 66, d, d’, page 112). 
Origin from the ventral surface of the body of the sphenoid 
between the foramen ovale and the groove for the Eustachian 
tube. The muscle ends in a flat tendon which passes over the 
hamular process (8) of the pterygoid bone. 
Insertion by spreading out in the soft palate into an 
aponeurosis which joins the aponeurosis, of the opposite muscle 
and lies between the mucous membrane of the mouth and that 
of the nose. 
Action.—Stretches the palate. 
M. levator veli palatini (Fig. 66, ¢, ¢’).—A flat triangular 
muscle which lies within the tensor. 
