Anatomy, Artistic; Animals in art; Zoological illustration
Bourgelat, considering this posterior portion as belonging to the biceps
cruris, to which, it is true, it adheres, forms of them a muscle which
he designates under the name of the _long vastus_. The anterior
fasciculus of this long vastus is none other than the posterior portion
of the great gluteal which we have just been studying.
Muscles of the Thigh
These muscles are divided into three regions: posterior, anterior, and
internal.
In a corresponding manner to that which we described in connection with
the arm, the thigh is applied to the side of the trunk, and is free,
more or less, only at the level of the inferior part.
Further, by reason of this shortening of the femur, the great gluteal
muscle, which is elongated in the ox and the horse, for example,
occupies in part the region corresponding to that which in man is
occupied by the muscles of the thigh, which here are reduced in length.
In other words, they are not superposed, as in the human species, but
juxtaposed. This is what we will verify further on.
The thigh, as a whole, is flattened from without inwards, its transverse
diameter being less in extent than its antero-posterior. Its external
surface is slightly rounded; that is, of course, in quadrupeds with
sufficiently well-developed muscles. Its internal surface is known as
the _flat of the thigh_.
Muscles of the Posterior Region
It is not unprofitable to recall to mind what muscles form the
superficial layer of this region in the human being. They are the biceps
cruris, semi-tendinosus, and semi-membranosus. We now proceed to
discover their analogues in quadrupeds.
=Biceps Cruris= (Fig. 68, 30; Fig. 69, 27; Fig. 70, 36).--It is this
which, according to Bourgelat, forms the central and posterior portions
of the long vastus muscle which we have mentioned above.
We know that the biceps of man is so named from the two portions which
form its upper part. In domestic quadrupeds, and also in the majority of
the mammals, this muscle is reduced to a single portion, that which
comes from the pelvis. It is therefore the portion which arises from the
femur which does not exist. This condition is sometimes found as an
abnormality in the human species.
The biceps arises from the tuberosity of the ischium; hence it is
directed, widening as it goes, towards the leg, where it terminates by
an aponeurosis which blends with the fascia lata and the aponeurosis of
the leg, and then proceeds to be attached to the anterior border or
crest of the tibia. By its inferior portion it limits externally the
posterior region of the knee--the popliteal space.
A fibrous intersection traverses the biceps in its whole length, with
the result that the muscle looks as if formed of two portions, one of
which is situated in front of the other.
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