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XIV.—A Revised Description of the Dorsal Interosseous Muscles of the Human Hand, with Suggestions for a New Nomenclature of the Palmar Interosseous Muscles and some Observations on the Corresponding Muscles in the Anthropoid Apes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

David Hepburn
Affiliation:
Lecturer on Regional anatomy in the University of Edinburgh.

Extract

The main features of the scope of this paper are indicated by its title, from which it will be seen that I do not regard the current descriptions, which appear in textbooks of human anatomy, as providing an adequate conception either of the attachments or of the functions of the muscles at present named “Dorsal and Palmar Interosseous.” It may seem strange, in connection with such an exact (and, according to some, exhausted) science as human anatomy, that it should be possible to doubt the accuracy of modern text-books concerning such an apparently elementary consideration as the description of a group of muscles in the human hand; but we must bear in mind, first, the ease with which a statement is handed on from author to author without renewed investigation, if only, in the first instance, it has been stamped with the approval of a recognised authority, and second, that these descriptions were originally constructed with little or no reference to the facts of comparative anatomy. It is only by a series of careful comparisons that we can arrive at a proper understanding of the homologies of individual muscles or of groups of muscles in the human subject.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1897

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References

page 557 note * Gray's, Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical.Google Scholar

page 557 note † Macalister, , A Text-Book of Human Anatomy, 1889.Google Scholar

page 557 note ‡ Cunningham, , Manual of Practical Anatomy, 1893.Google Scholar

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page 559 note * My heartiest thanks are due to Sir William Turner for placing his private collection at my disposal for the purpose referred to.

page 560 note * Macalister, , “Muscular Anomalies in Human Anatomy,” Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xxv., ScienceGoogle Scholar.

page 560 note † Cunningham, “ChallengerReports, Zoology, v.

page 560 note ‡ Hepburn, , “Comparative Anatomy of the Muscles and Nerves of the Superior and Inferior Extremities of the Anthropoid Apes,” Journ. Anat. and Phys., vol. xxviGoogle Scholar.

Halford, , Lines of Demarcation between Man, Gorilla, and Macaque, Melbourne, 1864Google Scholar.

page 561 note * Hepburn, loc. cit.

page 561 note † Dwight, , “Notes on the Dissection and Brain of the Chimpanzee, ‘Gumbo,’” Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. v. number ii. p. 38, 1895Google Scholar.

page 562 note * Hepburn, loc. cit.

page 562 note † Dwight, loc. cit.

page 563 note * Hepburn, loc. cit.

page 563 note † Vide Dwight quoted ante.