Volume 1

A compendium of anatomy, human and comparative : intended principally for the use of students.

  • Andrew Fyfe
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A compendium of anatomy, human and comparative : intended principally for the use of students. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    Part X] OF THE SKELETON, Though the term Skeleton is applied to a variety of substances, yet, in Anatomy, it is always understood to signify the Bones of Animals, connected together in their natural situation, after the soft parts of the Body in general are removed. It is termed a Natural Sheleton, when the Bones are joined by their own Ligaments ; And an Artificial Skeleton, when joined by Wire, &c. Small Subjects, and the Bones of those which are not fully ossified, are most conveniently prepared in the first way ; while the Bones of large Adult Animals are more readily cleaned when single, and are easily re- stored to their proper places. In viewing the Bones in their natural situation in the Skeleton, scarcely any one of them is observed to be placed in a perpendicular direction to another; yet in an erect posture, a perpendicular line from their common centre of gravity falls in the middle of their common base. On this account, the Body is found to be as firmly supported, as if the axis of all the Bones had been a straight line, perpendicular to the horizon, and much greater quickness, ease, and strength, are given to the Body, in several of its most necessary motions.