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

  • Galen
Date:
1956
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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.

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    work the blunter sort of lancet is best.) Then, with the upper attachment still adhering, cut it across. Now pull upward the lower part (which you have severed from the tissues by transverse incision), so as to stretch the 'roots'. Give special attention to what you now do, for not far from its end this tendon extends under the palmar skin [palmar aponeurosis]. Here you can proceed in one of two ways. Either remove the attached skin with the flattened tendon, separating 248 the latter from the underlying tissues with a sharp lancet; or free the skin from the tendon, leaving it on the underlying tissues. Either way its nature will become clear. This tendon is set under the inside of all the fingers, having as limit the line where the hairless palm meets the hairy skin. Beyond this tendon you will see flattened vessels (platynthenta) and nerves appor^ tioned to these parts [digital vessels and nerves]. Membranes rest on them, which you will remove with them after dissect/ ing the muscles. Springing from two heads, the tendons that flex the fingers lie underneath, at the level of the ligament [fexor retinaculum] to 24^ which the heads of the tendons are applied. Of these heads, the one produces four tendons, inserted into all the digits except the thumb at the beginning of the second phalanx. By these tendons the second joint is flexed [flexor digitorum sublimis]. The other tendon/head [flexor di^itorum profundus], lying beneath the former, splits into five parts in the ape, each reaching to the last joint of the digit, and is there inserted. Each several tendon is surrounded by a strong sheath, tougher than the tendon itself, and Hke a thick membrane [fibrous flexor sheath]. (You may call this tissue ligament' (syndesmon) or 'membrane' (hymen) or, compositely, 'membranous ligament', or again'hard membrane'. And you can name the covering of the tendons 'coat' (amp hies ma) or 'sheath' (skepasma) or 'tunic' (chit5n). Beyond the division into branches, you will see each tendon, along with the aforesaid covering, drawn in by the tendons lying under it but themselves passing on to the bones of the fingers, and [you