186 



MR WM. TURNER ON VARIABILITY IN HUMAN STRUCTURE. 



received a special fasciculus of fibres, arising from the process sent by the con- 

 necting slip of the flexor hallucis to the third or fourth toes ; in one case the 

 fourth lumbricalis was absent. 



Variations in the mode of arrangement of the flexor brevis digitorum were 

 also noted. The tendon passing to the little toe was sometimes not perforated 

 by the tendon of the common flexor. In one case it was blended and inserted 

 along with it ; in others it was so thin as to be lost in the fascia of the foot ; in 

 one it was altogether absent. In five cases the short flexor tendon for the little 

 toe was displaced at its origin, and arose from the common flexor tendon previous 

 to the subdivision of that structure (fig. 10).* At its origin it either consisted 

 partly of fibres continuous with those of the common flexor tendon, and partly 

 of distinct muscular fibres attached to and springing from that tendon, or it 

 arose tendinous, and then muscular fibres appeared in it, which again terminated 



on the tendon of insertion. In three of these cases the tendon bifurcated, to 

 allow the common flexor tendon for the little toe to pass through and beyond 

 (fig. 10); in the other two it blended with the common flexor tendon for that 

 toe, and was inserted along with it (fig. 9). In one specimen the tendon for the 



* Fig. 10. In this drawing, /is the flexor brevis digitorum, which divides into fasciculi for the 

 second, third, and fourth toes, the fasciculus for the fifth toe, e arises from the tendon of the flexor 

 communis. In this figure the deep flexor tendon for the little toe is formed almost entirely from the 

 flexor accessorius, the flexor communis contributing but a few fibres. The connecting slip from the 

 flexor hallucis trifurcates for the second, third, and fourth toes, and the flexor communis gives off a 

 connecting band to the flexor hallucis. Brugnone, Meckel, Theile, Htrtl, Henle, Church, and 

 Huxley, have all recognised the occasional origin of the short flexor tendon for the little toe from 

 the flexor communis. In another subject I saw the fasciculus forming the short flexor tendon for 

 the little toe arise in part from the external inter-muscular septum, and in part through fibres con- 

 tinuous with the muscular part of the flexor accessorius. 



t Fig. 11, g, the tendon of the flexor brevis for the third toe, its junction with a slip from the 

 expanded part of the flexor communis is represented. In both feet of a subject not included in the 

 above analysis, I saw an arrangement similar to that represented in fig. 11, except that the slip 

 from the common flexor tendon bifurcated before joining the two branches of bifurcation of the flexor 

 brevis. 





