Manual of general, descriptive, and pathological anatomy (Volume 3).

  • Meckel, J. F. (Johann Friedrich), 1781-1833.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual of general, descriptive, and pathological anatomy (Volume 3). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    diately behind the internal condyle of the humerus, where it may be easily compressed. Arrived at the fore-arm, it first gives off ramifications to the flexor digitorum profundus and to the flexor carpi ulnaris, and then sends under the skin along the basilic vein a small branch, called the long palmar nerve (JV*. ulnaris longus palmaris), which anastomoses in the carpus with an analogous branch coming from the median nerve ; about the middle of the fore-arm, it divides into two branches, a dorsal and a palmar. The dorsal branch (JV*. ulnaris dorsalis) passes between the ulna and the tendon of the flexor carpi ulnaris muscle, comes on the back of the fore-arm, where it subdivides into two twigs. The posterior or ulnar supplies the skin of the ulnar side of the hand, and becomes the cubito-dorsal nerve, of the fifth finger. The anterior or the radial also soon divides into two principal fila- ments, one of which is the radio-dorsal nerve of the fifth finger and the cubito-dorsal nerve of the fourth, the other is the radio-dorsal nerve of the fourth finger. This dorsal branch is distributed like the dorsal branch of the radial nerve. The palmar branch (JV*. ulnaris palmaris) which is larger, descends between the tendons of the ulnaris internus and the flexor digitorum communis muscles, and divides on the ulnar edge of the carpus into a superficial and a deep twig. The deep or muscular twig goes downward and forward between the adductor and flexor minimi digiti muscles, passes across to the radial side of the hand, going between the tendons of the flexor com- munis and interossei muscles, and sends numerous twigs to the mus- cles of the little finger, to the interossei and lumbricales, and to the adductor pollicis muscles. The superficial or cutaneous branch is smaller than the preceding, anastomoses by one or several filaments with the cubito-palmar branch of the median nerve (from this union we have a superficial palmar arch), and soon divides into two filaments, an anterior and a posterior. The anterior soon divides into the cubito-palmar nerve of the fifth finger and the common trunk of the cubito-palmar nerve of the fourth, and the radio palmar nerve of the fifth. Each finger receives two palmar and two dorsal branches, the first of which are the largest. They proceed along the radial and ulnar edges of the finger directly at the side of the digito-palmar artery, more in- ward and downward than it, that is, nearer the palmar face, as like- wise the superficial palmar arch is nearer the surface than their trunk. They go to the extremity of the fingers. In this passage they give off several large branches, distribute some small twigs to the palmar face of the finger, when they anastomose with each other.