CHAP. X. BRAIN AND NERVES.
143
CCCXIII. The carotid artery, inclosed along with
the jugular vein and nerve of the eighth pair, in
copious and dense cellular substance, commonly arrives ¬
at the upper part of the thyroid cartilage,
without sending off any branches. There it divides
into two trunks. The anterior, which is called the
external carotid, is more in the direction of its
trunk, and rather larger. It sends off the thyroidea
superior, the tortuous lingualis, and then the labialis;
and from its posterior part, close by its division, the
pharyngea ascendens, which, besides the pharynx
and muscles of the velum palati, supplies to the
dura mater, through the foramen common to the
jugular vein and nerve of the eighth pair, a considerable ¬
branch, sent off at the basis of the os petrosum, ¬
near to the foramen magnum, and cuneiform
process of the sphenoid bone.
CCCXIV. Then, from the exterior side of the external ¬
carotid, springs the occipital artery; which
also sends a branch to the dura mater, which is distributed, ¬
at the basis of the cerebellum, through a
peculiar foramen of the dura mater in the angle
which the os petrosum forms by departing from the
mamillary process : another branch passes over the
atlas to the dura mater, both under and into the
skull; and a third sometimes goes through the fossa
jugularis to the dura mater. The next artery, the
auricularis, goes to the back part of the ear, to the
membrane of the tympanum, and to the temples.
cCCXV. What remains of the external carotid artery, ¬
ascends through the parotid gland, to which
having given some branches, as well as to the face
and eyelids, it sends out, in the first place, the temporalis, ¬
which is considerable. The trunk of the
carotid, being inclined behind the lower jaw, loses
itself under the denomination of maxillaris interna.
In that place, it directly sends off a large trunk
to the dura mater, which passes through a peculiar ¬
opening of the broad pterygoid wings, to.
the
