FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>  
f each, lying in and being fixed to the bones of the arm, is, at the other end, continued into tendons, or rounded cords, which pass into the hand, and are ultimately fixed to the bones which are to be moved. Thus, when the fingers are bent, the fleshy parts of the flexors of the fingers, placed in the arm, contract, in virtue of their peculiar endowment as muscles; and pulling the tendinous cords, connected with their ends, cause them to pull down the bones of the fingers towards the palm. Not only are the principal flexors of the fingers and of the thumb long muscles, but they remain quite distinct from one another through their whole length. In the foot, there are also three principal flexor muscles of the digits or toes, and three principal extensors; but one extensor and one flexor are short muscles; that is to say, their fleshy parts are not situated in the leg (which corresponds with the arm), but in the back and in the sole of the foot--regions which correspond with the back and the palm of the hand. Again, the tendons of the long flexor of the toes, and of the long flexor of the great toe, when they reach the sole of the foot, do not remain distinct from one another, as the flexors in the palm of the hand do, but they become united and commingled in a very curious manner--while their united tendons receive an accessory muscle connected with the heel-bone. But perhaps the most absolutely distinctive character about the muscles of the foot is the existence of what is termed the 'peronaeus longus', a long muscle fixed to the outer bone of the leg, and sending its tendon to the outer ankle, behind and below which it passes, and then crosses the foot obliquely to be attached to the base of the great toe. No muscle in the hand exactly corresponds with this, which is eminently a foot muscle. To resume--the foot of man is distinguished from his hand by the following absolute anatomical differences:-- 1. By the arrangement of the tarsal bones. 2. By having a short flexor and a short extensor muscle of the digits. 3. By possessing the muscle termed 'peronaeus longus'. And if we desire to ascertain whether the terminal division of a limb, in other Primates, is to be called a foot or a hand, it is by the presence or absence of these characters that we must be guided, and not by the mere proportions and greater or lesser mobility of the great toe, which may vary indefinitely without any fundamental alter
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>  



Top keywords:

muscle

 

flexor

 

muscles

 

fingers

 

principal

 
flexors
 

tendons

 

termed

 

peronaeus

 

remain


united
 

distinct

 

longus

 

digits

 

extensor

 

corresponds

 

fleshy

 
connected
 

attached

 

absolute


passes

 

crosses

 

obliquely

 

resume

 

fundamental

 

tendon

 
eminently
 
distinguished
 

absence

 
characters

presence

 

indefinitely

 

Primates

 
called
 

guided

 

greater

 

lesser

 

mobility

 
proportions
 

division


tarsal

 

arrangement

 

differences

 

possessing

 

ascertain

 

terminal

 
desire
 
anatomical
 

tendinous

 

pulling