Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 474
Variations.—The Pectineus is sometimes divided into an outer part supplied by the femoral nerve and an inner part supplied by the obturator nerve. The muscle may be attached to or inserted into the capsule of the hip-joint. The Adductor longus may be double, may extend to the knee, or be more or less united with the Pectineus. The Adductor brevis may be divided into two or three parts, or it may be united to the Adductor magnus. The Adductor magnus may be more or less segmented, the anterior and superior portion is often described as a separate muscle, the Adductor minimus. The muscle may be fused with the Quadratus femoris. | |||||||||||||||
Nerves.—The three Adductores and the Gracilis are supplied by the third and fourth lumbar nerves through the obturator nerve; the Adductor magnus receiving an additional branch from the sacral plexus through the sciatic. The Pectineus is supplied by the second, third, and fourth lumbar nerves through the femoral nerve, and by the third lumbar through the accessory obturator when this latter exists. Occasionally it receives a branch from the obturator nerve. 1 | |||||||||||||||
Actions.—The Pectineus and three Adductores adduct the thigh powerfully; they are especially used in horse exercise, the sides of the saddle being grasped between the knees by the contraction of these muscles. In consequence of the obliquity of their insertions into the linea aspera, they rotate the thigh outward, assisting the external Rotators, and when the limb has been abducted, they draw it medialward, carrying the thigh across that of the opposite side. The Pectineus and Adductores brevis and longus assist the Psoas major and Iliacus in flexing the thigh upon the pelvis. In progression, all these muscles assist in drawing forward the lower limb. The Gracilis assists the Sartorius in flexing the leg and rotating it inward; it is also an adductor of the thigh. If the lower extremities be fixed, these muscles, taking their fixed points below, may act upon the pelvis, serving to maintain the body in an erect posture; or, if their action be continued, flex the pelvis forward upon the femur. | |||||||||||||||
3. The Muscles of the Gluteal Region (Fig. 434). | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| The Glutæus maximus, the most superficial muscle in the gluteal region, is a broad and thick fleshy mass of a quadrilateral shape, and forms the prominence of the nates. Its large size is one of the most characteristic features of the muscular system in man, connected as it is with the power he has of maintaining the trunk in the erect posture. The muscle is remarkably coarse in structure, being made up of fasciculi lying parallel with one another and collected together into large bundles separated by fibrous septa. It arises from the posterior gluteal line of the ilium, and the rough portion of bone including the crest, immediately above and behind it; from the posterior surface of the lower part of the sacrum and the side of the coccyx; from the aponeurosis of the Sacrospinalis, the sacrotuberous ligament, and the fascia (gluteal aponeurosis) covering the Glutæus medius. The fibers are directed obliquely downward and lateralward; those forming the upper and larger portion of the muscle, together with the superficial fibers of the lower portion, end in a thick tendinous lamina, which passes across the greater trochanter, and is inserted into the iliotibial band of the fascia lata; the deeper fibers of the lower portion of the muscle are inserted into the gluteal tuberosity between the Vastus lateralis and Adductor magnus. | |||||||||||||||
Bursæ—Three bursæ are usually found in relation with the deep surface of this muscle. One of these, of large size, and generally multilocular, separates it from the greater trochanter; a second, often wanting, is situated on the tuberosity of the ischium; a third is found between the tendon of the muscle and that of the Vastus lateralis. | |||||||||||||||
| The Glutæus medius is a broad, thick, radiating muscle, situated on the outer surface of the pelvis. Its posterior third is covered by the Glutæus maximus, its |