Velpeau's Anatomy of regions / translated from the French by Henry Hancock.

  • Velpeau, A. (Alfred), 1795-1867.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Velpeau's Anatomy of regions / translated from the French by Henry Hancock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    splenii and trapezii muscles, the complexi are divided by the liga- mentum nucha?. They are composed of numerous fasciculi, and cross the root of the splenii muscle very obliquely. Between the trapezius and the second layer of muscles, the cellular tissue, filamentous and very dense superiorly, lamellous in the middle, much looser inferiorly, encloses, externally, a cer- tain quantity of adipose cells. Between the splenii and com- plexi, this tissue is less abundant, excepting at its upper portion. Between the complexi and the subjacent muscles, it forms laminae, very indistinct in the two inferior thirds of the region, but well marked superiorly, where it exists in large quantities. The muscles, which do not cover the whole of the posterior region of the neck, may be divided into two series, or those situated above and those below the axis. The latter form a mass, which, filling the cervical grooves, is composed, from the ribs towards the median line, of the sacro-lumbalis, transversalis colli, longissimus dorsi, semi-spinales colli; in a word, of the prolongation of the different fasciculi entering into the composi- tion of the sacro-spinal muscle. Each rectus capitis posticus major muscle, extending from the spinous process of the second vertebra to the inferior curved line of the occipital bone, external to its crest, forms the side of a triangle, which we will examine hereafter. The small recti ascend from the tubercle of the atlas to the fossa, behind the foramen magnum of the occipital bone, on each side of the crest. Covered by the preceding, they lie immedi- ately upon the occipito-atlantal ligament. The obliqui postici are so disposed, that the inferior proceeds, from the spine of the dentator, to the transverse process of the atlas, and the superior, from this latter process to the occiput, between the semicircular lines, close to the rectus magnus. In the triangle circumscribed by these and the large recti are several important organs; such as the vertebral artery, sub- occipital nerve, also a portion of the ligaments uniting the two first vertebras with each other, and to the occipital bone. This space, covered by the complexus, is filled by fibro-cellular tissue, which, adhering very firmly to the muscles, nerves, and vessels, becomes blended with the ligaments and periosteum. The small muscles (inter-spinales) situated between the spinous processes, from the second to the seventh vertebrae, replaced be- tween the atlas and axis, and between the occiput and atlas, by the posterior recti, are double, symmetrical, and appear to support the opinion, which I have elsewhere expressed, that the fibrous yellow tissue is capable of becoming converted into muscular fibre, according to the necessities of the organs between which it is situated. The inter-transversales, equally double, each circumscribes a triangular space, through which the cervical nerves pass; but in such a manner that these nerves cannot be compressed by their contractions.