The two descending muscles are placed in the pillars of the fauces, forming the lateral prolongations of the velum, and the tonsils lie in a recess between them. The palato-glossi arising from the tongue ascend in the anterior pillars of the fauces, and spreading out on the anterior surface of the velum unite in the median raphe. The palato-pharyngei start from the median raphe in two lamellæ enclosing the termination of the levator muscle; they descend in the posterior pillars of the fauces, and being attached to the pharyngeal wall between the superior and middle constrictors, by their contraction assist in raising the pharynx during deglutition. The nervous supply of these muscles requires little notice here; suffice it that the superior set and the azygos are supplied by the facial nerve, the inferior set from the pharyngeal plexus. The _mucous membrane_ of the hard palate is of the usual oral type, and only differs from that of the rest of the mouth in its close attachment to the periosteum, from which in fact it is almost impossible to separate it. It is thick, dense, rather pale and much corrugated, especially in front and at the sides, whilst behind over the velum it is smoother and thinner. In it are many small glands (palatine glands) which extend down to the periosteum. In the median line is a well-marked raphe, extending anteriorly to a prominence indicating the position of the anterior palatine canal. The rugose condition of the membrane over the hard palate is not seen in young children; it supervenes later in life. The _vascular supply_ of the palate is free and abundant, a circumstance which is of the greatest surgical importance in that it permits of the free detachment of the soft structures from the hard by long lateral incisions, and the necessary manipulation of these in uranoplastic operations without any fear of loss of vitality, provided that the patient’s health and constitution are tolerably sound, and that sufficient pedicle is left in front and behind.