Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
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go to the muscles on the anterior of the thigh, as to the rectus fcmoris, the vastus extcrnus to the crurceus, and a long branch to the vastus interims; and from this nerve large filaments go to the periosteum about the knee, and to the knee joint. We see that the sartorius receives its supply from cutaneous twigs. The branch to the femoral sheath enters it at once near the groin, and there surrounds the femoral artery and vein, and the profoundcr vessels; some of these re-unite and escape from the saphenous opening to pass downwards with that vein; others are distributed to the adductor muscles, and connect with the long saphenous nerve. The short saphenous nerve descends on the inner border of the sartorius to the lower third of the thigh, and is lost about the knee joint; but one branch accompanies the femoral vessels to the point opposite the termination of the femoral artery, when' it divides and anastomoses with other nerves, as the obturator, <fcc, so as to form there a plexus, and from this, branches ramify the integument upon the internal and posterior aspect of the lower thigh. The long; saphenous nerve, (cutaneus interniHB longus,) after leaving the femoral nerve trunk, accompanies the femoral artery to the aponeurotic canal formed by the adductor longtis and the vastus interims muscles. It here quits the ar- tery, passes between the tendons of the sartorius and gracilis muscles, descends along the inner side of the leg down to the front of the inner ankle, and is distributed to the integument over the inner side of the foot, as far as the great toe. But there is first a tibial cutaneous branch from this, that branches off a little above the internal condyle at the knee, and passes down, giving a constant supply of surface twigs over the inner aspect of the leg, even to the ankle; also another short branch that supplies the synovial membrane of the knee joint; also another that supplies first the integument over and about the patella and around the knee ; then the skin and fascia on the front and outer aspect of the leg as far down as the ankle ; and lastly, some cutaneous branches that come off from the long saphenous a little below the knee to supply the integ- ument on the inner side and front of the leg and foot, and to give articular branches to the ankle joint.