On the anatomy of the Apteryx Australis, Shaw / by Richard Owen.

  • Owen, Richard, Sir, 1804-1892.
Date:
[1842]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the anatomy of the Apteryx Australis, Shaw / by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    279 that which supports and assists in emptying the crop in the common Fowl; but the oesophagus presents no partial dilatation in the Apteryx, and the situation of the cron is occupie y a large mass of lat enclosing one or two absorbent glands (PI. XXXIV. a') Sterno-maxillaris (PI. XXXIV. c).-This muscle appears at first view to be the anterior cont.nuat.on of the preceding, but is sufficiently distinct to merit a separate description and name Origin. Fleshy ; from the anterior part of the middle line of the sternum Imerh°n. It passes directly forwards along the under or anterior part of the neck expand- ing as it proceeds, and gradually separating into two thin symmetrical fasciculi, which are insensibly lost in the integument covering the throat and the angle of the jaw. It ad- heres pretty closely to the central surface of the constrictor colli, along which it passes to its insertion. 1 Use.—ro retract the fore-part of the skin of the neck, and also the head. Each lateral portion acting alone would incline the head to its own side: the whole muscle in action would bend the neck; but the movements of the head and neck are more adequately and immediately provided for by the appropriate deeper-seated muscles, and the imme- diate office of the present muscle is obviously connected with the skin. Nevertheless in so far as this muscle acts upon the head, it produces the same movements as the sterno.mastoideus in Mammalia ; and it is interesting to observe, that in the long-necked uminants (as the Giraffe) the sterno-mastoid muscles arise by a common origin, and ie insertmn is by an extended fascia into the angles of the jaw: I consider, therefore that the sterno-mastoideus is represented by the sterno-maxillaris in the Apteryx nerrnodransversalis (PI. XXXIV. fig. 1 d).-The skin covering the dorsal aspect of the ower wo-thirds of the neck, besides being acted upon by the constrictor colli, is braced own by a thin stratum of oblique and somewhat scattered fibres, which take their ori- gins by fasciae attached to the inferior transverse processes of the sixth to the twelfth cervical vertebrae inclusive ; the fibres pass obliquely upwards and backwards, and are inserted by a thin fascia into the median line of the skin, covering the back of the neck. Platysma myoides (PI. XXXI. e).~The representative of this cutaneous muscle is a thin triangular layer of muscular fibres, taking their origin from the outer side of the ramus of the jaw, and diverging as they descend to spread over the throat, and meeting their fellows at a middle raphe of insertion beneath the upper larynx and beginning of the tiachea, which they thus serve to compress and support. Dermo-spmalis (PI. XXXI. /).—Origin. By a thin fascia from the ends of the spinous processes of the three anterior dorsal vertebra:. Ins. The fibres slightly converge to be attached to the integument covering the scapular region. Dermo-ihacus (PI. XXXI. g).—Origin. Fleshy, from the anterior margin of the ilium Ins. The fibres pass forwards and slightly converge to be inserted into the scapular in tegument. r Dermo-costalis (PI. XXXL h). A muscle resembling the preceding in form. Origin fleshy, irom the costal appendages of the seventh and eighth ribs. Ins. The fibres