The diseases of the chest : including the principal affections of the pleurae, lungs, pericardium, heart, and aorta / by Vincent D. Harris.

  • Harris, Vincent Dormer.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the chest : including the principal affections of the pleurae, lungs, pericardium, heart, and aorta / by Vincent D. Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    later hj boue. This condition of the sternum admits of some inovement, which would hardly be the case with a rigid bone. From this cause also some of the deformities of the chest arise in cobblers, compositors, and the like. The upper two rib-cartilages articulate with the mauubrium of the sternum, and the second to tbe seventh witli the body of the bone, whilst the second fits into the car- tilaginous junction between them, and articulates with both. At this articulation of tlie two portions of the sternum is a slight angular projection forward, much exaggerated in some individuals, forming in the covered chest the angle of Ludwig. By the arrangement of the articulations of the ribs which has been now described, movements in two direc- tions are j^ermitted, viz. those of elevation or depression, and of rotation; the fixed point in both cases l)eing the attachment by the intei--articular ligament to the intervertebi-al disc. The first of these raovements is' snnple, the rib at its costo- transverse joint moving upwards and backwards or forwards and downwards. The rotatory move- ment takes place around an axis joining the vertebral and sternal ends of the bone. It should be remembered that the costal cartilages frequently ossify and become rigid in old age, and that the ensiform cartilage is ossified in the adult. The following landmarks are also useful:—The top of the sternum is on a plane with the lower border of the second dorsal vertebra behind, the angle of Ludwig with the lower border of the fourth, and the junction of the body of the sternum to the ensiform cartilage with the lower border of the eighth, dorsal vertebra. Opening-s of the Chest.—In the skeleton, the upper opening is narrow. It is bounded by the first dorsal vertebra behind, the upper bone of the ster- num in front, and the short first rib on either side. The lower opening is broad; it extends from the