Memoir of the late Martin Barry, M.D., F.R.SS.L. and E.

Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoir of the late Martin Barry, M.D., F.R.SS.L. and E. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    n»j)ired. that, viz., of a meritorious and successful scientific inquirer; for, assuredly, the reputation of all tliosc should he held in grateful remembrance, who, besides having themselves added several imjwrUuit facts to the subjects of their investigation, have also, by the influence of their e.xiiinple, the extent of their labours, and the ingenuity and vigour of their writings, promoted the a*lvaucenient of the science of organisation. I must heg you to excuse the appearance of haste in these ol)servalion8, which in the midst of many other engagements, I have, at your request, thrown together.—1 am, &c., 0.\ THE HOIUZIOTAI, Ol’RV.eTfHE OF THE I.STKItNAL Fe.MOKAL Co.NDTEK : O.N THE MoVEMEXT.S ami KeEATIOXS ok the TaTELEA ; SilMIEENAU Cautilaoes ; AND Sy.niiviae Paps ok the IIimc.s Knee-Joint. By JoH-x Goonsitt, F.U.SS. L. and M, Profe.>s«r of Anatomy. (A LiVture ddiferid in the r'niaersity oj lUUulurgh.) The Iwturt'r, assuming the ordiniry desriiptions of the liunmn knee-joint, and the inoiepreciKc ohK'rvations of the Brothtr? Welwr (MechaniA- Ar A/e»/ich- lichen Grhwerkzeu^e, IRfltJ;, as presenting the present state of information on the subject ; piriceeded to explain the arrangement and use of the peculiar curvitture at the fore juiit of the inner condyle of the femur, ns recently deter- tnitied hy Professor .Meyer of Zurich (/>i> MechaniL dm KnifijeUitht, ifuHer'a Archirm, lU-ro) ; and the movements and relations of tlie jjatella, semilunar car- tilages, and synovial pmls of the articulation, as observe<l by himself. Before entering on the peculiaiitit'* of the inner condyle, Mr G. reminded his audience that the knee-joint consists of two articulatiojis, with a common synovial membrane, Ibo imtello-femoral, and the feinoro-tihial, the latter being double. The articular i-urface of the femur is cnnset|u<‘Utly divided into a trochlea for the former, and two condyles for the hitter; the condyles being separated from one another by the iiiterconiiyloid fossa, and from the trochlea by two shallow olili((Ue grooves. Mr G. now observed, that anatomists had not hitherto noticed that the so- called obli<[uity of the inner condyle of the femur is in fact, as Meyer has IMiinted out, a curvature of its antei i'ir thinl, with its concavity directed back- wards, outwards, and downwards. The two posterior thirds of the inner con- dyle pass Ktekwards parallel to, and have the same general form and extent as the entire outer condyle of the bone. The curved portion, or anterior third of the usually «o-enlled inner condyle, may therefore Iwj conceived as a part intercalated between the ]iatell»r trochlea and the proper inner condyle. According to Meyer, the ineehaiiical advantages, which result from the peculiar anten>-j>osterior curvatures of the femoral condyles, which the Bro- thers M'elier concluded, from their atimeasureinents, to lie spirals, may be with greater simplicity as-uined to consist, as bis own admeasuiements sug- gest, each of two circular wgmenlH, tiie jmsterior of 120% the anterior of 40’, the radius of the former being to that of the latter as 5 to St. The horizontal curvature at the forepart of the inner comlyle, or, more precistdy, the oblique curvature may, as .Meyer states, be conceived as a si*gment of GO' of the margin of the base of a cone, the axis of whicli is directed at an angle of 4-V down- wards, outwards, and backwards, in front of the spine of the tibia, so that its apex is situated in the external condyle of that bone. In flexion and extension, therefore, of the knee-joint, as long as these move- ments are confined to the outer condyle, and the two posterior thirds of the inner condyle of the femur with the comlylcs of tlic tibia, they take place round two transverse axes, which pass respectively through the centivs of tlie posterior autero-posterior circular curvatures of the femoral condyles, and the centres of the anterior. To simplify tlm conception, however, of tliis part of the arrange- ment, Meyer assumes as sufficiently accurate, a single transverse axis.