Human osteology : comprising a description of the bones with delineations of the attachments of the muscles, the general and microscopic structure of bone and its development / by Luther Holden.

  • Holden, Luther, 1815-1905.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Human osteology : comprising a description of the bones with delineations of the attachments of the muscles, the general and microscopic structure of bone and its development / by Luther Holden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/450 (page 9)
    with a most delicate and elegant arrangement. The direction of this cancellous architecture in all parts of bones is arranged upon this principle :—its columns always run in the direction best adapted to support the pressm-e which the bone has to bear. A beautiful example of this is seen in the section of the cancellous tissue of the thigh- bone (Plate I.). At the lower part, towards the knee, the layers run vertically,—that is, in the direction of the axis of the shaft, this being the line of pressure when the body is erect. But in the neck of the thigh-bone the layers are arranged in decussating curves like the arches in Gothic architecture, one within the other, in order to sustain with the greatest mechanical advantage the weight transmitted on to the heads of the thigh-bones. Though so light and spongy, the cancellous Cancellous Tis- . . , , , ■ ^ j i SUE. Its Strength tissue IS able to support a great weight without A>-D PBOPEKTT OF giviog Way. We may form some idea of its BBEAKc-G SHOCKS. g^j.g^g.^]^ f^.^j^ the followiug experiment :*—A cubic inch of cancellous texture was taken from the lower end of the femur, and placed with its principal layers upright. Four cwt. was then placed upon it, but it did not give way in the least. Six cwt. made it sink half an inch. Yet the cubic inch of bone itself did not weigh more than 54 grains. Not only is cancellous tissue strong as well as light, but it possesses also another advantage— that of breaking shocks. When one ball of ivory strikes another, as in the game of billiards, the whole force of the shock is trans- mitted from one to the other; but let a ball made of the cancel- lous tissue of bone be interposed, and then see how the shock will be broken. This property of breaking shocks is of course greater when the bone is in its natural state and filled with marrow. The spaces formed by the cancellous tissue vary in size and shape, but freely communicate with each other, and with the holes on the surface of the bones. This communication is easily proved by boring a hole at one end of a bone, and pouring quicksilver into it:—we shall find that the quicksilver will run out freely through the natural holes at the other end. Marrow Ykliow ^''^ interior of the filiaft of a long bone is filled A.vi) liKD. ^iti, yellow marrow ; a substance composed almost « > Outlino8 of Osteology,' by Wuril, p. 308.