dots-menu
×

Home  »  Anatomy of the Human Body  »  pages 1023

Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.

pages 1023

fibrous investment. The tendon is reflected backward, lateralward, and downward beneath the Rectus superior to the lateral part of the bulb of the eye, and is inserted into the sclera, behind the equator of the eyeball, the insertion of the muscle lying between the Rectus superior and Rectus lateralis.
  The Obliquus oculi inferior (inferior oblique) is a thin, narrow muscle, placed near the anterior margin of the floor of the orbit. It arises from the orbital surface of the maxilla, lateral to the lacrimal groove. Passing lateralward, backward, and upward, at first between the Rectus inferior and the floor of the orbit, and then between the bulb of the eye and the Rectus lateralis, it is inserted into the lateral part of the sclera between the Rectus superior and Rectus lateralis, near to, but somewhat behind the insertion of the Obliquus superior.


FIG. 890– Dissection showing origins of right ocular muscles, and nerves entering by the superior orbital fissure. (See enlarged image)

Nerves.—The Levator palpebræ superioris, Obliquus inferior, and the Recti superior, inferior, and medialis are supplied by the oculomotor nerve; the Obliquus superior, by the trochlear nerve; the Rectus lateralis, by the abducent nerve.

Actions.—The Levator palpebræ raises the upper eyelid, and is the direct antagonist of the Orbicularis oculi. The four Recti are attached to the bulb of the eye in such a manner that, acting singly, they will turn its corneal surface either upward, downward, medialward, or lateralward, as expressed by their names. The movement produced by the Rectus superior or Rectus inferior is not quite a simple one, for inasmuch as each passes obliquely lateralward and forward to the bulb of the eye, the elevation or depression of the cornea is accompanied by a certain deviation medialward, with a slight amount of rotation. These latter movements are corrected by the Obliqui, the Obliquus inferior correcting the medial deviation caused by the Rectus superior and the Obliquus superior that caused by the Rectus inferior. The contraction of the Rectus lateralis or Rectus medialis, on the other hand, produces a purely horizontal movement. If any two neighboring Recti of one eye act together they carry the globe of the eye in the diagonal of these directions, viz., upward and medialward, upward and lateralward, downward and medialward, or downward and lateralward. Sometimes the corresponding Recti of the two eyes act in unison, and at other times the opposite Recti act together. Thus, in turning the eyes to the right, the Rectus lateralis of the right eye will act in unison with the Rectus medialis of the left eye; but if both eyes are directed to an object in the middle line at a short distance, the two Recti mediales will act in unison. The movement of circumduction, as in looking around a room, is performed by the successive actions of the four Recti. The Obliqui rotate the eyeball on its antero-posterior axis, the superior directing the cornea downward and lateralward, and the