A manual of the dissection of the human body / by Luther Holden ; with notes and additions by Erskine Mason.

  • Luther Holden
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of the dissection of the human body / by Luther Holden ; with notes and additions by Erskine Mason. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    upper opening of the chest, wliicli supports the soft parts, and prevents their yielding to the pressure of the atmosphere during inspiration. Dr. Allan Bums* first pointed out this important function of the cervical fascia, and has recorded a case exemplifying the results of its destruction by disease. [In the case of a gentleman who suffered from an abscess at the root of the neck, which destroyed the fascia and tissues of this part, the trachea and the anterior innominata were found, after recovery, to be merely covered by a very thin pellicle of polished skin. An insufficient protection against the pressure of the external air upon the trachea, which so diminished its calibre as to render his respiration laborious.] Moreover, the great veins at the root of the neck, namely, the internal jugular, subclavian, and innominate, are so closely united by means of the cervical fascia to the adjacent bones and muscles, that when divided they gape. They are, as the French express it, canalisees, and are therefore better able to resist the pressure of the atmosphere, which tends to render them flaccid and impervious during inspiration. But this anatomical disposition of the great veins renders them more liable to the entrance of air when wounded. The danger of this occurrence is well known. Many deaths are recorded, resulting from the sudden entrance of air into the veins during operations about the neck, or even the axilla. Sterno-cleido-mastoideus.—The stemo-cleido-mastoideus arises by a flat tendon from the upper part of the sternum, and by fleshy fibres, from the sternal third of the clavicle. It is inserted into the mastoid process, and about the outer half of the superior semicircular ridge of the occipital bone. Observe that the sternal origin of the muscle is at first sep- arated from the clavicular by a slight interval; subsequently the sternal fibres gradually overlap the clavicular. [The interval at the origin of this muscle is sometimes want- ing. Its sternal origin may be very broad, arising from more than a third of the clavicle. The lower extremity may reach as low as the rectus abdominis, or the ensiform cartilage of the sternum.] The muscle is confined by its strong sheath of fascia, in such * Surgical Anatomy of the Head and Neck.