126 THE OSTEOLOGY AND MYOLOGY 



tween the apex of the ilium and the front of the knee, with no relation of contiguity in 

 its course with any of the other muscles of the thigh. It arises by an aponeurosis from 

 the top of the ilium, gradually narrows as it descends, and is inserted aponeurotic into the 

 top and inner border of the "ligamentum patellae. " The peculiar office of the human 

 tailor-muscle is not fulfilled in the least. The action is that of simple extension of the leg, 

 and flexion of the thigh. 



Hectus. — (Fig. 32, 6, and fig. 31, e.) No femoral attachment to represent a crurseus. 

 It lies in a bed formed by the vasti ; blending with them is prevented by a fibrous investment 

 along its whole under surface. It forms a stout, terete, fusiform belly, arising by a short, 

 stout, flattened tendon from the border of the ilium just above the acetabulum. 



Vasti. — (Fig. 32, c, externus; fig. 31,/, internus.) The two are inseparably blended 

 for their whole length. The outer mass is much the larger, and also longer than the other ; 

 somewhat fusiform in general shape, but compressed ; arising from the trochanter major, 

 and outer half of the whole shaft of the bone, as far around as the insertions of the glu- 

 taeus maximus and adductors, and quite to the condyle. The internus is rather pyriform in 

 shape, arising from the rest of the shaft, from the neck to the inner condyle. 



The conjoined tendon of the vasti and rectus does not embrace a distinct patella ; a little 

 speck of ossification, or several gritty particles, may, however, be found in old subjects. 

 In this instance, at least, the tuberosity of the tibia is an olecranon. The tendon is about 

 a quarter of an inch broad, occupying the groove between the condyles, and proceeding to 

 the usual insertion. On either side it blends with the common capsular ligament, and 

 aponeuroses of the two upper crural flexors. The homotypy of the rectus and vasti to- 

 gether with the triceps of the arm, is here even more strikingly displayed than in man. 

 The rectus is the scapular head ; the blended vasti are the similarly conjoined humeral heads. 

 The sartorius as forcibly calls to mind the epitrochlear slip from the latissimus dorsi. 



Gracilis. — (Fig. 32, g, and fig. 31, o, o.) Largest of the crural flexors, and the most 

 posterior as well as internal ; a powerful flexor of the leg, and in less degree an adductor 

 of the whole limb. It arises broad, thin and fleshy, from the whole of the symphysis 

 pubis, between the articulation of the marsupial bone and the margin of the semimembran- 

 osus. It lies at first upon the adductors, and afterwards upon the crural flexors. At its 

 origin it is an inch or more wide ; it narrows very gradually to near the insertion, and is 

 then suddenly reduced to a narrow, flat tendon, which passes across the inside of the 

 leg, to be inserted into the crista tibiae at the junction of the middle and upper thirds of 

 the leg, just below the insertion of the semitendinosus. 



Semimembranosus. — (Fig. 32,/, and fig. 31, I.) The origin of this muscle occupies the 

 margin of the ischium between that of the preceding and following. But though it thus 

 arises lowest down of any, it is inserted the highest up on the leg, crossing the semitendino- 

 sus in its course. It has nothing of the character indicated by its name, being a continu- 

 ous fleshy belly of large size, prismatic, or almost semilunar in transverse section — the 

 lower border of the adductor magnus lying in the longitudinal groove thus formed. Its 

 short, narrow, and very thin tendon is inserted into the prominence on the inner side of 

 the head of the tibia. 



Semitendinosus. — (Fig. 32, e, and fig. 31, m.) Arises by a short, stout tendon in com- 

 mon with the biceps from the tuber ischii, forming a stout, flattened band that proceeds 

 straight to the leg, to be inserted into the inside of the shaft of the tibia an inch below the 



