Galen on anatomical procedures : de Anatomicis administrationibus / translation of the surviving books with introduction and notes by Charles Singer.

  • Galen
Date:
1956
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Galen on anatomical procedures : de Anatomicis administrationibus / translation of the surviving books with introduction and notes by Charles Singer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    42/326 (page 10)
    arm on the outside [i.e. extensor surface].Pqj- being continue ous with itself and single in the strict sense, it is split at the wrist into four tendons [extensor digitorum communis which is, how^' ever, variously divided in different species of ape] producing a uniform movement, each extending the relevant finger. With reason, then, all anatomists treat this muscle as one, disregard/ ing the multiplicity of tendons of insertion. For the same reason, they regard as one the muscle lying next to it which moves the litde finger laterally [extensor digiti minimi]^ though it has two tendons of insertion, for when the belly which lies above the tendons contracts it gives the ap/ pearance of one muscle. So if, like the tendons, the muscles also 238 which lie above them had a twofold oudine, they would have maintained that the muscles that initiate lateral motion in the little finger were two. However, the muscle that gives the other three fingers the same motion [extensores digitorum II, 111, IV] they do not regard as one. Yet if likeness of motions justifies treatment of them as a unity, surely since all regard the muscle that extends the four fingers as one, they should reckon also as one those that initiate lateral movement. Moreover, not even when several heads of a muscle coalesce near their origin into one belly with its own outline, do they consider the number of heads. Thus they have all taken as single the muscle in front attached to the arm, which starts from two heads [hiceps hrachii], because it has but one insertion and has necessarily a single motion and uniform outline. But they do not regard as single those muscles which move the calf [gastrocnemius], though they accept that they are fastened to the heel by a single tendon [tendo calcaneus], because their heads 239 extend a long way before uniting. If then they be right, though their teaching about other muscles is often wrong, they should not be charged with igno^ ranee on this ground alone, nor need it be suspected that they disagree [on matters of fact] with those who enjoy better doc^ trine. I shall state in turn two methods of teaching the same subject, which differ in appearance more than in reality.