166 



COUES, 



tor of the whole limb ; secondly, a flexor femoris ; thirdly, a flexor 

 cruris ; and finally, it rotates the leg a little inward. 



Bectus femoris. — Entirely distinct from the rest of the " triceps ex- 

 tensor cruris," which, as a whole, is not very highly developed. Rec- 

 tus has definite origin by a stout, flattened tendon from the bottom of 

 the iliac shaft, just above and in front of the acetabulum. The ten- 

 don radiates upon the surface of the muscle, and helps to keep it dis- 

 crete from vasti. The muscle enlarges below, forming a pyramidal 

 belly that passes between and separates iliacus and gluteus minimus. 

 Farther on, it partly separates in two; a superficial portion, the 

 larger, has virtual insertion into the patella; the deep portion, smaller 

 and thinner, runs down fleshy over the face of this sesamoid, to be in- 

 serted with the ligamentum patellae into the head of the tibia by a fas- 

 cial expansion. A pure extensor cruris. 



Vasti. — There is no " crura^us," although with the exercise of the 

 ingenuity that anthropotomy has developed, such might perhaps be 

 invented. The two vasti form a single fleshy mass of moderate size, 

 arising from the whole of the broad anterior femoral surface, from 

 the insertion of psoas and iliacus on one side to that of glutsei on the 

 other. The insertion is fleshy, into the patella, its whole width. The 

 great size of this bone, and its remarkably distinct ligament for tibial 

 attachment, give it less appearance of a sesamoid than usual. The 

 vasti are pure extensors. 



Both crural bones articulate extensively with the femur ; and the 

 conformation of the knee-joint in other respects, is such, that the leg 

 enjoys rotatory movements equivalent to pronation and supination, 

 and more closely resembling those of the elbow than is usual in 

 the mammalian series. The oar that the foot makes, like that of 

 the hand, is feathered at the joint above. Examination of above de- 

 scribed actions of muscles moving the leg will show how this is 

 accomplished; while certain motions at the ankle, to be readily ap- 

 preciated from the notice of the leg muscles that here follows, fur- 

 ther the design of bringing the limb forward with the edge of the 

 web cutting the water, and carrying it backward with directly op- 

 posed broad plantar surface. 



Poplito&us. — The proper rotator of the leg is of large size, and, as 

 usual, deep-seated at the back of the knee-joint and leg. It arises 

 fleshy from the inner corner of the crest of the fibula for a third of 

 an inch; passes obliquely across the joint, and downwards, to the 

 tibia, gaining some fibres of origin from the articular head of the fib- 

 ula as it passes that point; but we made out no femoral attachment. 

 It is inserted fleshy into the broad flat space on the back of the tibia, 

 just below its head. 



If this muscle really is poplitseus. here we have it without femoral 



