Essays and observations on natural history, anatomy, physiology, psychology, and geology / by John Hunter, being his posthumous papers on those subjects, arranged and revised, with notes ; to which are added the introductory lectures on the Hunterian collection of fossil remains delivered in the theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, March 8th, 10th and 12th, 1855 / by Richard Owen.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1861
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays and observations on natural history, anatomy, physiology, psychology, and geology / by John Hunter, being his posthumous papers on those subjects, arranged and revised, with notes ; to which are added the introductory lectures on the Hunterian collection of fossil remains delivered in the theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, March 8th, 10th and 12th, 1855 / by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![was formed of two, three, or four different ossifications. It would be much more proper to give the bone only one name, as, for instance, the • os innominatum,' for two reasons; because the whole is really but one bone, and because it was formed in one cartilage1. This last would be no reason if we found that Nature sometimes formed two bones in one cartilage, and that they remained so through life; but this is never the case. However, we have an exception to distinct cartilages forming distinct bones; for the sacrum is one bone, although formed in several distinct cartilages, these being closely united together by substances which readily ossify. Bones in young animals are often so soft, that they are not able to support the perpendicular weight of body; therefore they generally bend; those that soonest give way are the tibise and fibulae. The direction in which they do bend is not constant; being sometimes forward, and often outward. When forward, it is generally higher up than when outward; for when outward it is generally just above the ankle: but this bend forward is not altogether from perpendicular pressure; the tendency to it is assisted by the contraction of the muscles behind. This bend, in the human subject, is produced gradually by pressure from above. That it is from pressure or some power applied beyond the strength of the animal or part, is evident from the case of a young leopard. It was chained by a chain about a yard long, and had always a vast desire to go out of the door: in all its efforts to get loose it pulled in one direction, pulling with one fore-leg, and pushing with the other, by which means the bones of the leg that he pushed with were bent outwards, exactly answering these two motions of the legs, and the motion of the animal. Ossification of the cylindrical bones is supposed to begin like a ring in the middle of the cartilage; and this ring becoming broader, makes the length of the bone. But I have reason to believe this is only con- jecture, arising from what a section of a cylindrical bone would show. For in a very young bone we never find the end of it hollow, although the middle of it may be so; but as the end increases in length, from being solid, it becomes hollow; this scooping out or excavation follow- ing the growth. Cut off from the end of an older bone the proportion by which it exceeds the length of a younger one, and we shall find the cut end of 1 [Hunter, it will be seen, fails to appreciate the signification and value assigned in homological anatomy to the distinct points of ossification in the common carti- lage of the compound bones which he cites. It is interesting, however, to find this approach to the verge of considerations which have subsequently exercised so strongly the anatomical mind.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21182656_0405.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
