294 



THE MUSCLES. 



a third (Fig. 131, 9), wide, flat, and often very voluminous, situated between 

 the preceding and the external obturator ; it is attached, by its inner border, 

 to the external border of the ischium, contracting intimate adhesions with the 

 other two and with the tendon of the internal obturator, and becoming 

 inserted by the whole extent of its external border into the digital fossa. 



Relations. — The gemelli respond posteriorly, to the sciatic nerves ; 

 anteriorly, to the capsule of the hip-joint and the external obturator, 

 through the medium of an adipose cushion. 



Action. — Like the preceding muscle, these rotate the thigh outwards, 

 and perhaps tend to produce the abduction of this ray. 



nnTEKENTIAL CHAEACTEKS OF THE MUSCLES OF THE THIGH IN OTHEE THAN SOLIPED 



ANIMALS. 



A. Anterior Crural Region. 



In the Ox, Sheep, and Goat, the muscle of the fascia lata is much wider than in 

 Solipeds. In the Dog and Cat, this muscle offers in front a supernumerary fasciculus — • 

 a long thick band, confounded inwardly with tue long abductor of tlie leg, and extending 

 vertically from the external angle of the ilium to the patella, into which it is inserted by 

 a short aponeurosis. 



The anterior rectus of flic thigh in the Dog and Sheep has only one originating branch. 



The anterior gracilis, the very email muscular fasciculus, is only present in Solipeds 

 . and Carnivores. 



B. Posterior Crural Region. 



Epminants. — In the Ox, Sheep, and Goat, the two portions of the long vastus are 

 but little distinct from each other, and the anterior is reinforced superiorly by the 

 superficial gluteus, which, with the long vastus, forms but one remarkably developed 

 muscle. 



Fi?. 132. 



II ill,; "J 



The internal face of this muscle has 

 no point of attachment on the femur ; it 

 glides behind the trochanter by means of 

 a vast mucous bursa, which is often thc- 

 seat of pathological alterations — synovial 

 tumours which constitute the swellings oi 

 gout of the larger Ruminants. Another 

 synovial bursa, liable to the same 

 maladies, covers the patellar tendon of the 

 muscle on its passage over the external 

 condyle of the femur, and facilitates its 

 gliding on that buny eminence. Before 

 joining the external patellar ligament, 

 this tendon shows a very thick, fibro- 

 cartilaginous enlargement, and receives 

 some of the fibres of the external vastus. 



Another arrangement in this muscle, 

 which it is essential to recognise in a 

 surgical point of view, is the union of the 

 anterior border of the long vastus of the 

 Ox with the fascia lata, whose two 

 lamelluB comprise that muscle between 

 them, and closely adhere to each of its 

 taces. It very frequently happens that 

 in emaciated bea«ts, this fascials ruptured 

 at the trochanter, and the latter, instead 

 of gliding on the inner face of the long 

 vastus, slips before its anterior border to 

 pass through the solution of continuity, 

 where it is fixed so firmly that it is some- 



SUPERFIOIAL MUSCLES OF THE CKOUP AND 

 THIGH IN THE COW. 



1, Middle gluteal ; 2, 2, Long vastus; anterior times necessarylocutTcroTsThe fibres'of 

 portion; 3, Ditto, posterior portion; 4, Semi- the long vastus in order to give the limb 



liberty of movement. 



tendinosus 4 5, Muscle of the fascia lata. 



