[Fig. 96].—Muscles of Tongue, Hyoid Bone, and Pharynx.

a, M. tragicus lateralis; b, M. jugulohyoideus; c, M. pterygoideus externus; d, partially cut surface of M. pterygoideus internus; e, M. styloglossus; f, M. genioglossus; g, M. geniohyoideus; h, M. hyoglossus; i, M. glossopharyngeus; j, M. constrictor pharyngis medius; k, M. constrictor pharyngis inferior; l, M. stylopharyngeus; m, M. sternohyoideus (cut); n, M. cricothyreoideus; o, M. sternothyreoideus (cut); p, M. thyreohyoideus. 1, mandible; 1′, angular process of mandible; 2, stylomandibular ligament; 3, bulla tympani; 4, trachea; 5, œsophagus; 6, thyroid gland; 7, isthmus of the thyroid gland.

The intrinsic muscles of the tongue (those entirely within it) are attached to its integument at both their ends. There are three sets of fibres: a longitudinal, a transverse, and a vertical one. These are seen most readily in cross-sections.

The Soft Palate. Velum Palatinum

([Fig. 66], [page 112]).—The soft palate is the free curtain-like structure which forms the caudal part of the roof of the mouth. It is attached to the caudal border of the palatal plates and the ventral border of the perpendicular plates, of the palatine, and to the pterygoid processes and hamuli of the sphenoid, and extends some distance caudad of the hamuli. It thus forms a rather long and narrow curtain separating the caudal part of the nasal cavity from the mouth. Caudad it ends in a free arched border ([Fig. 66], 4) which is at about the level of the epiglottis, and may lie against the cranial or the caudal surface of the latter. The narrowed passage bounded by the margin of the velum palatinum dorsad and the tongue ventrad is the isthmus faucium. From the sides of the velum a short distance from the caudal border a fold of mucosa passes ventrad to the side of the tongue; a short distance caudad of this a similar fold passes to the floor of the pharynx. These folds form the cranial and caudal pillars of the fauces. Between these folds is a shallow pocket, from the bottom of which there arises a prominent projection or swelling which is one of the two tonsils ([Fig. 95], d). Each tonsil is a reddish, lobulated gland, lymphoid in the adult, nearly a centimeter in length, and about one-third as long as broad, with its long axis craniocaudad.

The velum palatinum consists of two layers of mucous membrane, oral and nasal, with intervening muscular and connective tissue. The muscles of the soft palate in the cat are as follows:

M. tensor veli palatini ([Fig. 66], d, d′, [page 112]).

Origin from the ventral surface of the body of the sphenoid between the foramen ovale and the groove for the Eustachian tube. The muscle ends in a flat tendon which passes over the hamular process (3) of the pterygoid bone.

Insertion by spreading out in the soft palate into an aponeurosis which joins the aponeurosis of the opposite muscle and lies between the mucous membrane of the mouth and that of the nose.

Action.—Stretches the palate.