Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
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| by four broad, shallow grooves, which lodge the anterior divisions of the sacral nerves, and are separated by prominent ridges of bone which give origin to the Piriformis muscle. |
| If a sagittal section be made through the center of the sacrum (Fig. 99), the bodies are seen to be united at their circumferences by bone, wide intervals being left centrally, which, in the fresh state, are filled by the intervertebral fibrocartilages. In some bones this union is more complete between the lower than the upper segments. |
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FIG. 95– Sacrum, pelvic surface. (See enlarged image) |
Dorsal Surface (facies dorsalis).—The dorsal surface (Fig. 96) is convex and narrower than the pelvic. In the middle line it displays a crest, the middle sacral crest, surmounted by three or four tubercles, the rudimentary spinous processes of the upper three or four sacral vertebræ. On either side of the middle sacral crest is a shallow groove, the sacral groove, which gives origin to the Multifidus, the floor of the groove being formed by the united laminæ of the corresponding vertebræ. The laminæ of the fifth sacral vertebra, and sometimes those of the fourth, fail to meet behind, and thus a hiatus or deficiency occurs in the posterior wall of the sacral canal. On the lateral aspect of the sacral groove is a linear series of tubercles produced by the fusion of the articular processes which together form the indistinct sacral articular crests. The articular processes of the first sacral vertebra are large and oval in shape; their facets are concave from side to side, look backward and medialward, and articulate with the facets on the inferior processes of the fifth lumbar vertebra. The tubercles which represent the inferior articular processes of the fifth sacral vertebra are prolonged downward as rounded |