Elements of human anatomy : general, descriptive and practical / by T.G. Richardson.
- T. G. Richardson
- Date:
- 1854
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Elements of human anatomy : general, descriptive and practical / by T.G. Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![The arteries of the bones are small but numerous. The largest, called the nutritious arteries, enter the nutritious foramina, and are principally distributed to the endosteum. The others enter the small openings formed upon every part of the surface, and a few traverse the large foramina around the extremities of the long and the circumference of the broad bones. The veins are large and numerous, and generally follow the course of the arteries ; there is, besides, a special system belonging to the spongy tissue, which pass through large tortuous canals, or sinuses, hollowed out of the bone. These veins have only a single [the inter- nal] coat; they are best seen in the vertebrae and the cranial bones. Lymphatics have never been demonstrated in the bones, but there is no doubt whatever of their existence. The impossibility of inject- ing them in opposition to their valves very readily accounts for their not having been seen. Nerves from the cerebro-spinal system have been traced as far as the nutritious foramina, but never farther. If, however, it is true that the endosteum or medullary membrane possesses sensibility, as affirmed by Duverney, Bichat, and Wistar, there can be no doubt of their presence. Osteogeny.—Osteogeny, or the development of bone, is one of the most interesting and instructive subjects connected with the whole study of general anatomy; but, in an elementary treatise like the present, not even an outline of the entire process can be given. It must suffice, therefore, to state that, in the earliest stage of foetal life, the bones, in common with all other organs of the body, exist in the form of a homogeneous mucous or jelly-like mass, which, under the microscope, consists of nucleated cells floating in a semiopaque consistent fluid, or blastema. Out of this mucus temporary carti- lages are produced, which have the external forms of the future bones, and in these cartilages the earthy or ossific matter is deposited. The change into cartilage is completed about the end of the eighth week; but before this time, at about the sixth or seventh week, the carti- lages of the clavicle and lower jaw are entirely formed, and ossifica- tion commences in these parts. A few days later, ossific points may be discovered in the shafts of the femur, tibia, and humerus, and in the upper jaw; next, in the cervical vertebrae, ribs, cranial bones, fibula, scapula, &c. At birth, the bodies of the long bones generally, the bodies and laminae of the vertebrae, and most of the broad bones are far advanced ; some of the tarsal bones have just begun to ossify,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21150254_0101.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
