a. and sb. Nat. Hist. [ad. mod.L. lumbrīcāl-is: see LUMBRICUS and -AL.]
A. adj. Pertaining to or resembling a lumbricus or worm; Anat. applied to certain fusiform muscles in the hand and the foot which assist in flexing the digits.
1694. Phil. Trans., XVIII. 230. The Lumbrical Muscles (which lye in the Palm of the Hand).
1722. Quincy, Lex. Physico-Med. (ed. 2), 2. The Tendon of one of the lumbrical Muscles.
1775. Ash, Lumbrical..., belonging to the earthworm.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), III. 394. The Lumbrical and Vermicular Ascaris.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 757/2. The fourth digital nerve … gives a filament to the second lumbrical muscle.
1866. Treas. Bot., Lumbrical, worm-shaped; a term applied to the worm-like lobes of the frond of certain seaweeds.
B. sb. Often in L. form lumbricalis, pl. -es. A lumbrical muscle.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Lumbricales, Muscles of the Finger, so nam’d from their Figure.
1800. Phil. Trans., XC. 12. The fingers are bent to a certain degree by the long muscles that lie upon the fore-arm, to the tendons of which a set of smaller muscles are attached, called lumbricales.
1872. Humphry, Myology, 188. There is in each limb only one lumbricalis.
1889. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 2 April, 733/1. The lumbricals of the hand and foot.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 660. The two radial lumbricals are not paralysed.
