With Valentine’s Day approaching this post had to be something to do with Love, or 
matters of the heart. Whilst there is a large window of opportunity for education around the sexual organs – you only have to listen to the popular pod cast “My Dad wrote a porno” to realise there are big holes in some people’s anatomical knowledge of that region, I thought I would go with something a little more romantic (maybe I’ll cover the other angle on Patreon).
The obvious post would have been about the depiction of the heart and how you would struggle to find anything approaching a traditional heart shape, unless you were dissecting a horse. So, I decided to go with something different!
Let’s have a look at adductors and abductors and see if we can find something romantic there.
Adductors move things towards the midline of the body (they add to the body). The adductors of the hip bring the thighs towards the midline. They bring the two legs together. They used to be known as one muscle group rather than the three we known them as now. Von Hildebrandt referred to this muscle group as custos virginitalis for obvious reasons.
Abducens come from the Latin Ab, away and Ducere, to lead. Abductors move things away from the midline of the body. The abducent nerve gets its name because it supplies the lateral rectus muscle of the eye, which turns the eyeball outwards. It was once known as musculus amatorius because of its contribution to proving the sidelong glances of lovers
The naming of anatomical structures is a mixing pot of people egos and preconceptions that always provides a story that adds to the richness of the subject.
Anatomical terms. Their origin and derivation. Field and Harrison 1947
anatomyfundamentals.com 