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Home  »  Anatomy of the Human Body  »  pages 516

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

pages 516


The Anterior Ventral Aortæ.—These persist on both sides. The right forms (a) the innominate artery, (b) the right common and external carotid arteries. The left gives rise to (a) the short portion of the aortic arch, which reaches from the origin of the innominate artery to that of the left common carotid artery; (b) the left common and external carotid arteries.


FIG. 474– Diagram showing the origins of the main branches of the carotid arteries. (Founded on Tandler.) (See enlarged image)

The Aortic Arches.—The first and second arches disappear early, but the dorsal end of the second gives origin to the stapedial artery (Fig. 474), a vessel which atrophies in man but persists in some mammals. It passes through the ring of the stapes and divides into supraorbital, infraorbital, and mandibular branches which follow the three divisions of the trigeminal nerve. The infraorbital and mandibular arise from a common stem, the terminal part of which anastomoses with the external carotid. On the obliteration of the stapedial artery this anastomosis enlarges and forms the internal maxillary artery, and the branches of the stapedial artery are now branches of this vessel. The common stem of the infraorbital and mandibular branches passes between the two roots of the auriculotemporal nerve and becomes the middle meningeal artery; the original supraorbital branch of the stapedial is represented by the orbital twigs of the middle meningeal. The third aortic arch constitutes the commencement of the internal carotid artery, and is therefore named the carotid arch. The fourth right arch forms the right subclavian as far as the origin of its internal mammary branch; while the fourth left arch constitutes the arch of the aorta between the origin of the left carotid artery