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Home  »  Anatomy of the Human Body  »  pages 1142

Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.

pages 1142

A vertical fold of mucous membrane, the salpingopharyngeal fold, stretches from the lower part of the torus; it contains the Salpingopharyngeus muscle. A second and smaller fold, the salpingopalatine fold, stretches from the upper part of the torus to the palate. Behind the ostium of the auditory tube is a deep recess, the pharyngeal recess (fossa of Rosenmüller). On the posterior wall is a prominence, best marked in childhood, produced by a mass of lymphoid tissue, which is known as the pharyngeal tonsil. Above the pharyngeal tonsil, in the middle line, an irregular flask-shaped depression of the mucous membrane sometimes extends up as far as the basilar process of the occipital bone; it is known as the pharyngeal bursa.


FIG. 1029– Front of nasa part of pharynx, as seen with the laryngoscope. (See enlarged image)
  The Oral Part of the Pharynx (pars oralis pharyngis) reaches from the soft palate to the level of the hyoid bone. It opens anteriorly, through the isthmus faucium, into the mouth, while in its lateral wall, between the two palatine arches, is the palatine tonsil.
  The Laryngeal Part of the Pharynx (pars laryngea pharyngis) reaches from the hyoid bone to the lower border of the cricoid cartilage, where it is continuous with the esophagus. In front it presents the triangular entrance of the larynx, the base of which is directed forward and is formed by the epiglottis, while its lateral boundaries are constituted by the aryepiglottic folds. On either side of the laryngeal orifice is a recess, termed the sinus piriformis, which is bounded medially by the aryepiglottic fold, laterally by the thyroid cartilage and hyothyroid membrane.

Muscles of the Pharynx.—The muscles of the pharynx (Fig. 1030) are:
Constrictor inferior.
Stylopharyngeus.
Constrictor medius.
Salpingopharyngeus.
Constrictor superior.
Pharyngopalatinus. 1
  The Constrictor pharyngis inferior (Inferior constrictor) (Figs. 1030, 1031), the thickest of the three constrictors, arises from the sides of the cricoid and thyroid cartilage. From the cricoid cartilage it arises in the interval between the Cricothyreoideus in front, and the articular facet for the inferior cornu of the thyroid cartilage behind. On the thyroid cartilage it arises from the oblique line on the side of the lamina, from the surface behind this nearly as far as the posterior border and from the inferior cornu. From these origins the fibers spread backward and medialward to be inserted with the muscle of the opposite side into the fibrous raphé in the posterior median line of the pharynx. The inferior fibers are horizontal and continuous with the circular fibers of the esophagus; the rest ascend, increasing in obliquity, and overlap the Constrictor medius.