On a group of varieties of the muscles of the human neck, shoulder, and chest : with their transitional forms and homologies in the Mammalia / by John Wood ; communicated by Dr. Sharpey.

  • Wood, John, 1825-1891.
Date:
[1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a group of varieties of the muscles of the human neck, shoulder, and chest : with their transitional forms and homologies in the Mammalia / by John Wood ; communicated by Dr. Sharpey. 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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    VII. On a Group of Varieties of the Muscles of the Human Neck, Shoulder, and Chest, with their transitional Forms and Homologies in the Mammalia. By John Wood, F.B.C.S., Examiner in Anatomy at the University of London; Professor of Surgery in King's College, London, and Surgeon to King's College Hospital. Communicated by Dr. Sharpey, Sec. R.S. u Received June 17,—Read June 17, 1869. In the 1 Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ between the years 1864 and 1868 inclusive, were published five series of observations upon variations in Human Myology, made in the Anatomical Rooms of King’s College, London. These observations extended over 202 dissected subjects; they were restricted chiefly to the muscles of the head and neck and those acting upon the extremities, and did not include the numerous irregularities w7hich are usually found in those of the back. Prom the extensive range of the subject, and the importance of ascertaining as far as possible the statistical frequency of the abnormal forms, there was little opportunity afforded of giving due prominence to many of the specimens which were entitled to spe- cial distinction, either from their first appearance in the records of anatomical science, or from their homological importance as transitional forms, or as representatives of muscles hitherto found only in certain classes of animals. Many others had, indeed, been recorded by the older or more modern writers under various names, as irregularities of the muscle with which they were connected or con- tiguous. A great number of these, I believe, were mere varieties of the same transi- tional specimens, and were placed in this series for the first time in their proper relation and true homological significance to each other. After some years of practical observation and bibliographical research, I have brought together some of the more interesting groups of these muscular varieties in illustration of the working of the law of variation in modifying muscular formations in the human subject; producing, in some instances, muscles which appear at first to be remarkably aberrant from the ordinary human construction, and identical in some with those which have usually been considered as peculiarly animal formations. From this point of view one of the most interesting groups of muscles is that of the muscles which connect the neck and shoulder. From the variability of the bones of the shoulder-girdle and the dissimilar habits and requirements of the different classes of ani- mals, it is not surprising to meet with a perplexing variety in the different portions of their muscular apparatus ; but it is striking to find that a great tendency to the same kind of variability is to be found in the shoulder of Man, in which it exists to an extent which M 2