Dear Editor

I read this article and the result. It was a very nice dissection on variation of sternocleidomastoid. Therefore in France, there was another paper on this subject.

Dr. O. Maubrac, a prosector at the Faculty of Medicine in Bordeaux, in 1883, presented a report of anatomical and physiological research on the sternocleidomastoid muscle published in Paris, Douin ed. [1]. This author reported variations in the sternocleidomastoid muscle about 60 dissections. He described in detail the variations on insertion in the sternum.

In one case, there were three sternal: a sterno-mastoid and a sterno-occipital, then a second deep sterno-mastoid inserting on the upper edge of the sternum. While the other chief sternal was inserted on the anterior face of the sternum 15 mm from the handle separated by a rather wide gap, from its deep counterpart.

In another case, he encountered in a woman, and on both sides, two sternal tendons located one behind the other, both tendinous, but merging at 25 mm from the sternum, their muscular bodies. These very rare abnormalities were most consistently observed with the sterno-occipital. In other words, a supernumerary sternal chief may exist: either in isolation, it is the most ordinary case or confused with the surrounding sterno-mastoid and cleido-occipital bundles. While the other chief sternal was inserted on the anterior face of the sternum 15 mm from the handle separated by a rather wide gap, from its deep counterpart.

He completed his work with a description of the variations of the clavicular insertions. He discussed the study of the cleido-occipital muscle and reported on—Wood’s work in the “Transactions of Roy. Soc. of London in 1869 [2]—” At the end of this 61-page report, it was five anatomical descriptive plates of excellent quality.