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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    OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. oesophagus presents no partial dilatation in the Apteryx, and the situation of the crop is occupied by a large mass of fat enclosing one or two absorbent glands (PI. XIII. a). Sterno-maxillans (PI. XIII. c).—This muscle appears at first view to be the anterior continuation 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. Ins: U Passes directly forwards along the under or anterior part of the neck, expanding 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. Use.—To retract the forepart 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 Ruminants (as the Giraffe) the sterno-mastoid muscles arise by a common origin, and the insertion is by an extended fascia into the angles of the jaw : I consider, therefore that the sterno-mastoid is represented by the sterno-maxillaris in the Apteryx/ti^m^ O Wd in uffiiuli this lmisuk liay-hitlnuhrlrecn d&Bei»ibed>y /C Dermo-transversalis (PI. XIII. d).—The skin covering the dorsal aspect of the lower two-thirds of the neck, besides being acted upon by the constrictor colli, is braced down by a thin stratum of oblique and somewhat scattered fibres, which take their origins 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. X. 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 th'e 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 trachea, which they thus serve to compress and support. Per mo-sp in alls (PI. X. f).—Origin. By a thin fascia from the’ends of the spinous pro- cesses of the three anterior dorsal vertebrae. Ins. The fibres slightly converge to be attached to the integument covering the scapular region. Dermo-iliaCus (PI. X. 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. Dermo-costalis (PI. X. h).—A muscle resembling the preceding in form. Origin. Fleshy, from the costal appendages of the seventh and eighth ribs. Ins. The fibres pass 2 i 2
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