514 Mr. J. Wood on Variations in Human Myology. [June 18, 



in both hands, one from the os magnum to the middle digit, and the other 

 from the unciform to the nw^-digit. In the female (No. 33), the subject 

 of the last figure, the right hand, only, showed three slips, arising from the 

 dorsal aspect of the bases of the second, third, and fourth metacarpals 

 and their dorsal ligaments, and inserted into the corresponding digits. 



In 68 males this muscle has been found by the author in 7, and in 34 

 females in 3 — giving nearly an equality in the sexes. In looking over the 

 works of the older anatomists, the author finds that short single dorsal slips 

 to the index or middle finger had been observed by iVlbinus, and described 

 by him as the Muscidus extensor brevis digiti indicts vel medii" (Acad. 

 Annot. lib. iv. cap. vi. p. 28, and tab. v. fig. 3, 1734). A single shp from 

 the carpus to the index is described by Gantzer as an indicator biceps 

 (op. cit. p. 14), and similar ones by Otto as an " indicator anomalus breris'^ 

 (Seltene Beobacht. S. 91), arising from the radius in one instance, and from 

 the third metacarpal in another. In two other male hands the last-named 

 anatomist found a slip from the carpus to the middle finger, which he calls 

 the " extensor anomalus brevis des Mitteljingers.^* Scemmerring, Petsche, 

 and Sandifort have described slips which might be confounded with these, 

 but which refer rather to the true indicator giving off an extensor medii 

 digiti. In all of them, however, the slips were single, and did not form 

 the broad flat muscle described by the author in his former papers. It is 

 remarkable that they were all found in male subjects. The short common 

 extensor of the digits is represented in the Brady pus tridactylus, in the 

 two-toed Anteater, and in the Saurian, Chelonian, and Batrachian Rep- 

 tiles, according to Meckel (Anat. Comp. vol. v. pp. 386, 388, & 391, and 

 vol. vi. pp. 346 & 351, and Archiv, v. p. 47). 



37. Abductor pollicis. — In 2 males and 2 females this muscle was divided 

 into two portions, rather widely separated at their origins from the trape- 

 zium and annular ligaments respectively. In the 2 males and in 1 female 

 this was the case in both hands, and in the other female in the left hand 

 only. In the two males there was, in addition, a considerable muscular 

 shp from the inner of the two to join the fibres of the opponens pollicis in 

 their insertion. 



38. Abductor minimi digiti. — In the right hand of the male (No. 2) a 

 separate muscular head from the anterior annular ligament joined the ten- 

 don of this muscle at its insertion. In both hands of No. 3 the muscle 

 w^as double, the Jlexor brevis being absent. In the left arm of No. 1 1 the 

 muscle was arranged in two parts, viz. the normal origin, and a high origin 

 2| inches above the wrist. The latter arose by two heads, one fleshy, 

 from the fascia covering the flexor carpi ulnaris, and the other tendinous, 

 from the tendon of the palmaris longus. These united above the wrist to 

 form a fleshy muscle, larger than the normal origin, and placed external 

 to it, which became united with it just before its insertion. 



This abnormality has been found in 3 males only out of 102 subjects of 

 both sexes examined by the author. It has been described by Scemmerring 



