abducentadj.n.

1649 J. Bulwer Pathomyotomia ii. ix. 216 From which operation the Muscles Abducent have in this signification of the mind they might bee properly called Sanniones the Scoffers or the Muscles of Scorne and Derision.

1720 W. Gibson Farriers New Guide v. 61 The Nose is moved by four Pair of Muscles, two Pair called the adducent or closing Muscles, and two pair term'd the abducent or widening Muscles.

1745 tr. H. Boerhaave Acad. Lect. Theory Physic IV. §530 113 A certain epileptic Patient..always saw Objects double, because this Muscle [sc. the trochlearis] was paralytic, and overcome by the stronger Power of the abducent Muscle.

1859 Retrospect Med. 39 344 In alternating convergent squint..the absolute length of both abducent muscles is too great in proportion to that of the adducents.

1933 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 4 Nov. 819/2 At the worst the abducent movement [in rowing] is not more than 45 degrees from the hanging position.

1722 J. Gorman Let. 14 June in J. Jurin Corr. (1996) 107 Making a ligature upon the Abducent Lymphatick..and ye Adducent.

1759 W. Porterfield Treat. Eye I. x. 223 Hovius published a Treatise concerning the Circulation of those Humours, wherein he pretends to have clearly demonstrated the abducent as well as adducent Vessels.

1822 A. T. Thomson Lect. Elements Bot. 77 When the operation is reversed, the twig being cut at its top, and inverted in the coloured fluid, we can trace that of the returning or abducent vessels.

1752 tr. L. Heister Compend. Anat. Index 502/1 Nerve abducent.

1772 W. Northcote Anat. Human Body 53 The abducent pair (except a branch for the formation of the intercostal nerve) is wholly carried to the abducens oculi; whence its name.

1798 R. Hooper Compend. Med. Dict. Abducent nerves,..the sixth pair of nerves are so called, because they go to the abducent or rectus externus muscle.

1846 R. Owen Lect. Compar. Anat. Vertebr. Animals i. viii. 193 In all other fishes the sixth or abducent nerve has its proper origin, as well as the fourth and third.

1922 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 9 Sept. 466/1 Five patients had optic neuritis; paresis of the abducent nerve appeared twice.

1995 J. H. Schwartz Skeleton Keys ii. 26/1 The oculomotor, trochlear, and abducent nerves..course through the superior orbital fissure.

2005 European Jrnl. Radiol. 69 255/1 Neurological examination was normal except for a mild left abducent paresis.

1681 J. Browne Compl. Treat. Muscles 20 This ariseth from the same place with the Abducent, and marcheth in a right Line to the External part of the Internal Angle, where it grows indifferently thick.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Abductor, or Abducent, in Anatomy, a Name common to several Muscles, whose Action is the withdrawing, opening, or pulling back the Parts they are fix'd to.

1752 tr. L. Heister Compend. Anat. 230 The abducent: this sends out a branch for the formation of the intercostal nerve; but almost the whole of the nerve, except this, is carried to the musculus abducens of the eye, whence the pair are named.

1813 J. M. Good et al. Pantologia Abducent nerves, the sixth pair of nerves are so called because they go to the rectus externus oculi, which muscle was formerly called the abducent.

1876 J. Jones Med. & Surg. Mem. I. 54 The nucleus of the abducent is still uncertain.

1914 Cunningham's Man. Pract. Anat. (ed. 6) II. 476 The abducent is a small nerve which emerges from the groove between the lower border of the pons and the lateral part of the pyramid.

2002 Drug Discov. Today 7 894/2 It would appear that..the abducent is now called the external oculomotor and the vagus, the pneumogastric.