Observations on the anatomy of Nycticebus tardigradus / by St. George Mivart and James Murie.

  • Mivart, St. George Jackson, 1827-1900.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the anatomy of Nycticebus tardigradus / by St. George Mivart and James Murie. 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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    portion, and is inserted into the inner side of the neck of the humerus, between the conjoined tendons of the teres minor and sub- scapularis and that of the teres major.. It is just in front of the external head of the triceps, and has the tendon of the latissimus dorsi passing immediately before it. S. Van der Kolk and Vrolik say nothing of the short head. With reference to the action of this muscle, it is probable that, besides ‘ mere flexion mentioned by them, the short slip has an influence in the rotation of the limb. Meckel1, in contradistinction to the Loris says, in “ les Makis ” it is divided, thereby implying that in the first it is single. Kuhl\ as early as 1820, noticed the division of this muscle in Ateles. Cuvier, in his * Leans’3, has also mentioned its bifurcation in Monkeys. Burdach1 describes a double head in the Simiadce; Burmeister5 in Tarsius-, and Prof. Owen6 notices in Cheiromys a condition very similar to that existing in our Nycticebus. The shorter portion is apparently described by W. S. Church7 as a slip of the biceps. The biceps is described in the joint memoir as having two heads, uniting obliquely below, and having a common insertion into the radius. In the earlier paper on the Quadrumana, by one of the authors, W. Vrolik8, it is described as consisting of but one portion in Stenops; but he does not mention which species he refers to. Meckel0 likewise asserts that there is but one head in Loris. This last is the condition it presented in our specimen, the muscle arising by a long and remarkably strong tendon from the margin of the glenoid cavity, and with its usual insertion. In both Tarsius10 and Cheiromys11 there are two heads. The flexor sublirnis digitorum is a slender and double-bellied muscle, there being a distinct tendon in its middle12. It arises from the internal condyle and intermuscular fascia, and gives from the distal end of the lower muscular belly a very small tendon which joins the flexor profundus, as noticed by S. Van der Kolk and Vrolik. Just below this four other tendons (of about equal size, excepting that to the index, which is considerably more slender) are given off and go to the second, third, fourth, and fifth digits respectively. They bifurcate, as usual, to give passage to the tendons of the flexor profundus, except the tendon of the index, which does not split, but joins the deep tendons opposite the base of the proximal phalanx of the index (figs. 2 & 3, F. s). A similar connexion exists between the superficial and deep flexors I Anat. Comp. vol. vi. p. 281. 2 Kuhl, loc. cit. p. 16. 3 Vol. i. p. 395. 4 Loc. cit. p. 25. 6 Op. cit. p. 49, t. 3. fig. 2. nos. 14 and 14 b. 6 Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. v. p. 60, pi. xxiii. fig. 1, nos. 14 and 14 b. 7 Nat. Hist. Review, 1861, p. 514. 8 Todd’s Cyclop. Anat. and Physiol, vol. iv. p. 218. “ Anat. Comp. vol. vi. p. 291. 10 Burmeister, p. 51, t. 3. figs. 1, 2. no. 2 a, b. II Owen, l. c. p. 60, pis. xxii. xxiii. fig. 1. no. 20. 12 Previously noticed by Meckel, loc. cit. p. 340. [6]