MR WM. TURNER ON VARIABILITY IN HUMAN STRUCTURE. 



183 



the flexor communis in the construction of the deep flexor tendons for those 

 toes. * 



In nine specimens a band, sometimes of considerable size, proceeded from the 



Fig. 6. 



Kg. 7. 



common flexor tendon previous to its subdivision, which joined the tendon of the 

 flexor hallucis longus beyond the origin of the connecting slip for the common 



* That the tendon of the long flexor of the great toe gives off" a band more or less strong to the com- 

 mon flexor of the toes in the sole of the foot has been almost universally recognised by anatomists, but 

 the exact nature of the connection between them has not at all times been clearly expressed. Amongst 

 the older anatomists, Vesalius describes this band as passing from the tendon of the great toe to the 

 tendon proceeding to the second toe, and sometimes in an equal degree to the tendon of the common 

 flexor for the middle toe. Diemerbroeck again states that sometimes the long flexor of the great 

 toe is divided in the sole into two parts, one of which goes to the great, the other to the second toe, 

 and then the common flexor sends but three tendons to the other toes. Cowper and Bidloo simply 

 describe a connecting band passing from the proper to the common flexor, without specialising its mode 

 of termination, and this method of description has been followed by most systematic writers in the latter 

 part of the last century, and in the present, as Innes, Monro, Sabatier, Bichat, Boyer, John Bell, 

 Fyfe, Cloquet, Cruveilhier, Dodd, Quain, Harrison, Hyrtl, Ledwich, Ellis, Knox, Holden, 

 Heath, and Gray. Meckel employs, in his description of the long flexor of the great toe almost the 

 same method as Diemerbroeck, but, in addition, states that the long flexor tendon for the second toe 

 is for the most part formed by the connecting band and the flexor accessorius. Theile follows very 

 closely the latter statement of Meckel, but, under the head of anomalies, he describes the connecting 

 band as dividing for the second and third toes. Arnold gives the connecting band as strengthening 

 the tendon for the second toe, though it often goes also to the third toe. Henle states that the strong 

 process from the proper to the common tendon is for the most part, and at times altogether, continued 

 into the tendon destined for the second toe. Mr Church, in a recent monograph on the myology of the 

 Orang {Natural History Review, 1862), has also directed attention to the connection of the band from 

 the flexor hallucis with the second and third toes. Professor Rolleston has advanced evidence to 

 the same effect. Last of all, Mr Huxley (Reader, 13th February 1864) states, as the results of his 

 dissections, that the tendon of the flexor hallucis longus, besides giving off the tendon to the great 

 toe, furnishes distinct slips to the two or three succeeding digits, uniting with the tendons of the 

 flexor digitorum and flexor accessorius. That considerable variability occurs in the mode of termina- 

 tion of the connecting band might almost be inferred from the different descriptions given of it by the 

 numerous anatomists just quoted, each apparently, of those at least who go into details, basing his 

 description on the specimen or specimens he may more particularly have examined. A more exact 

 conception, however, of the extent of this variability may be gathered from the analysis of the fifty 

 specimens recorded in the text. 



VOL. XXIV. PART I. 3D 



