1887SuttonJB

Fragment from the book Sutton JB. Ligaments: Their Nature and Morphology (1887). According to the author, the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) is a modified tendon of the pectineus muscle. This section of the chapter duplicates article 1883SuttonJB.

Quote pp. 38-41

THE LIGAMENTUM TERES.

The round ligament of the hip joint has long been an anatomical puzzle, and many opinions have been held concerning its nature. It is, however, best regarded as the divorced tendon of a muscle, and here arguments will be raised in order to show that in all probability it belonged to the pectineus, but has become separated from it in consequence of skeletal modifications. The ligamentum teres is a structure fairly constant in Mammalia, but is wanting in the Seal, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Walrus, Ornithorhynchus, Echidna, Sea-otter, (Enhydra marina) (of this form I have had the good fortune to dissect the joints in two specimens), Sloth, Orang, Walrus, Hyrax, and Pangolin.

The two last mentioned animals are additions to the list which I have been enabled to make, in consequence of dissecting two specimens of each. In birds the ligament is said to be present with only one exception-the cassowary, but in a specimen of Casuarius appendiculata dissected by me, the ligamentum teres was present in both hip joints.

In reptiles possessing limbs, and in amphibians, a band representing the round ligament is universally present.

It is in the horse that we first get the glimpse of the true nature of the ligament, for in this animal it consists of two parts, one hidden within the joint termed the cotyloid portion, the other passes out of the cavity to join the linea alba at its junction with the pubes, hence it is termed the pubio-femoral portion. From this band the pectineus takes origin.

In the ostrich the ligamentum teres has a true tendinous structure. It is dense and strong, contains a large quantity of yellow elastic tissue arranged in fasciculi as in the tendon of a muscle. In this bird it may measure three-fifths of an inch in transverse section.

Many birds possess in their thigh a very extraordinary muscle known as the ambiens, full of interest on account of its remarkable course, variability, and relations. When fully developed it has the following attachments. It arises. from the tip of the short anteriorly directed spine which is situated just above the anterior border of the acetabulum, and runs along the inner side of the thigh to the inner side of the knee, where it is covered by the sartorius, which is above it in the former part of its course. Its thin tendon then crosses the knee, running in the substance of the fascial extensor tendon, just in front of the patella, to the outer side, where it joins the fibres of origin of the flexor perforatus digitorum.

In the adult ostrich a section carried through the acetabulum so as to divide the ambiens at its point of origin, and the ligamentum teres, will show that the two latter are connected by fibrous tissue.

In the winter of 1883, I was fortunate enough to obtain an ostrich chick, and a dissection of its hip joint showed clearly enough the ligament and a small muscular slip, parallel with the ambiens, in direct continuity, as shown in fig. 14. The actual specimen is preserved in the museum of Middlesex Hospital. The ambiens and the muscular slips mentioned above, are the representatives in birds of the mammalian pectineus.

FIG. 14. The femur of an Ostrich chick with the
pectineus muscle and ligamentum teres in continuity.

The hip-joint of a sphenodon was then examined. In this very curious lizard, as in lacertilia generally, the hip joint is of very simple character, and the muscle corresponding to the ambiens of birds and the pectineus of mammals arises by two heads, one from the lateral spine of the pubes, the other lies inside the capsule and gains an attachment to the head of the femur, thus corresponding in its relation with the joint, to the ligamentum teres of mammals and birds.

The varying relation of muscle and ligament may be arranged in a tabular form thus: —

Sphenodon. — Tendon of ambiens (pectineus) passes inside the capsule to the head of the femur.

Struthio. — Ligamentum teres and ambiens muscle directly continuous.

Equus. — Ligament in two parts, one continuous with the pectineus outside the joint.

Homo. — Ligamentum teres, a fibrous band carrying blood vessels to the head of the femur.

There is no ligament in the body which can boast such an extensive literature, or has exercised more the ingenuity of physiologists and surgeons than the one we have been considering.

Teleologists like Paley† have been enraptured with this structure, and anatomists have ascribed to it wonderful mechanical resistance and uses. Alas in this, as in so many like cases, morphology demands for it a low level and determines it to be a vestigial and practically useless ligament. In this sense teleology is as poetry, but morphology as plain history.

* For all that relates to this strange muscle consult Garrod's remarkable paper in Proc. Zool. Soc., 1873, p. 626. "On certain muscles in the Thigh of Birds, etc."

† See especially his Natural Theology, page 55.

External links

Sutton JB. Ligaments: Their Nature and Morphology. London: H.K.Lewis, 1887. [books.google]

Authors & Affiliations

John Bland Sutton or John Bland-Sutton (1855-1936), was a British surgeon [wikipedia.org]. In 1881 became a prosector at the Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens. In 1896, Bland-Sutton was appointed Surgeon to the Chelsea Hospital for Women. In 1905, he became Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital (Burke PF. Sir John Bland-Sutton: ‘A Great Surgeon’, Surgical News, 2021;22(4)48-49. issuu.com).

Sir John Bland-Sutton
Bain News Service (publisher), unknown date;
original in the wikimedia.org collection (CC0 – Public Domain, no changes).

Keywords

ligamentum capitis femoris, ligamentum teres, ligament of head of femur, anatomy, animals, Sphenodon, Struthio, evolution

NB! Fair practice / use: copied for the purposes of criticism, review, comment, research and private study in accordance with Copyright Laws of the US: 17 U.S.C. §107; Copyright Law of the EU: Dir. 2001/29/EC, art.5/3a,d; Copyright Law of the RU: ГК РФ ст.1274/1.1-2,7

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ZOOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY

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1981OrtnerDJ_PutscharWGJ

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