Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 403
| Intercostalis internus; and a third, more delicate layer, is interposed between the two planes of muscular fibers. They are best marked in those situations where the muscular fibers are deficient, as between the Intercostales externi and sternum in front, and between the Intercostales interni and vertebral column behind. |
| The Intercostales (Intercostal muscles) (Fig. 411) are two thin planes of muscular and tendinous fibers occupying each of the intercostal spaces. They are named external and internal from their surface relations—the external being superficial to the internal. |
| The Intercostales externi (External intercostals) are eleven in number on either side. They extend from the tubercles of the ribs behind, to the cartilages of the ribs in front, where they end in thin membranes, the anterior intercostal membranes, which are continued forward to the sternum. Each arises from the lower border of a rib, and is inserted into the upper border of the rib below. In the two lower spaces they extend to the ends of the cartilages, and in the upper two or three spaces they do not quite reach the ends of the ribs. They are thicker than the Intercostales interni, and their fibers are directed obliquely downward and lateralward on the back of the thorax, and downward, forward, and medialward on the front. |
Variations.—Continuation with the Obliquus externus or Serratus anterior: A Supracostalis muscle, from the anterior end of the first rib down to the second, third or fourth ribs occasionally occurs. |
| The Intercostales interni (Internal intercostals) are also eleven in number on either side. They commence anteriorly at the sternum, in the interspaces between the cartilages of the true ribs, and at the anterior extremities of the cartilages of the false ribs, and extend backward as far as the angles of the ribs, whence they are continued to the vertebral column by thin aponeuroses, the posterior intercostal membranes. Each arises from the ridge on the inner surface of a rib, as well as from the corresponding costal cartilage, and is inserted into the upper border of the rib below. Their fibers are also directed obliquely, but pass in a direction opposite to those of the Intercostales externi. |
| The Subcostales (Infracostales) consist of muscular and aponeurotic fasciculi, which are usually well-developed only in the lower part of the thorax; each arises from the inner surface of one rib near its angle, and is inserted into the inner surface of the second or third rib below. Their fibers run in the same direction as those of the Intercostales interni. |
| The Transversus thoracis (Triangularis sterni) is a thin plane of muscular and tendinous fibers, situated upon the inner surface of the front wall of the chest (Fig. 390). It arises on either side from the lower third of the posterior surface of the body of the sternum, from the posterior surface of the xiphoid process, and from the sternal ends of the costal cartilages of the lower three or four true ribs. Its fibers diverge upward and lateralward, to be inserted by slips into the lower borders and inner surfaces of the costal cartilages of the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs. The lowest fibers of this muscle are horizontal in their direction, and are continuous with those of the Transversus abdominis; the intermediate fibers are oblique, while the highest are almost vertical. This muscle varies in its attachments, not only in different subjects, but on opposite sides of the same subject. |
| The Levatores costarum (Fig. 389), twelve in number on either side, are small tendinous and fleshy bundles, which arise from the ends of the transverse processes of the seventh cervical and upper eleven thoracic vertebræ; they pass obliquely downward and lateralward, like the fibers of the Intercostales externi, and each is inserted into the outer surface of the rib immediately below the vertebra from which it takes origin, between the tubercle and the angle (Levatores costarum breves). Each of the four lower muscles divides into two fasciculi, one |