Ourselves, our food, and our physic / [Benjamin Ridge].

  • Ridge, Benjamin
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ourselves, our food, and our physic / [Benjamin Ridge]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Joints, with their Cartilages and Ligaments.—■ Every joint is formed of two or more bones, having their ends protected by cartilage or gristle, and are held together by strong ligaments, thus forming a more or less hinge-like apparatus. Within them there is a fluid secreted called synovia, vulgarly joint-oil, for their proper lubrication. The thick fibrous skin coverings of all cartilages and bones are serous membranes or natural sponges to retain inorganic fluid elements. The Muscles.—The general configuration and symmetry of the body depend on its muscles or flesh. These arise from one part of a bone and are inserted into another part, or from one bone and become inserted into the next. They have direct as well as antagonistic actions and extend or draw in the limbs under the direction of the will by com¬ bined hydraulic and electric forces. The fleshy parts of these are the muscular structure, whilst their thinner ter¬ minations are called tendons. All muscles can be more or less distinctly traced by their skinny coverings, which give them an easy play over each other, hence anatomists have been able to separate, trace, and name them. Their number amounts to about 350. It must not be supposed that these muscles are solid portions of flesh ; quite the reverse, they consist of myriads of fibres, through which large quantities of inorganic fluid elements pass for their lubrication. The value of these fluids must be borne in mind, as they have wonderful influences on life, whether in health or disease, and will be frequently mentioned in this work. Fat, Cellular Tissue, Skin, etc.—Over the muscles Nature has provided certain fatty deposits and a beautiful fabric, called the cellular tissue, which nourish the parts beneath and the true skin immediately above, whilst an upper skin covers all. A small watery space lies between these two skins, yet so closely connected are they, that until a gall or a blister separates them, they would be scarcely known to exist as two distinct organisms. This, then, is the general framework of the body as it appears externally ; parts of it being protected with hair, and the termination of the toes and fingers with nails, the uses of which are patent to all. The facility of movement of the whole or parts of the body, and its powers, need no illus-
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