Observations on the angle of the neck of the thigh-bone ; Loose bodies in the joints / by Professor Humphry.

  • Humphry, George Murray, Sir, 1820-1896.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the angle of the neck of the thigh-bone ; Loose bodies in the joints / by Professor Humphry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    stump and also the os innominatum on that side are smaller than on the opposite side. In a fourth specimen, from a man, iet 60, who underwent amputation in the thigh thirty-six years before his death, who had used a wooden leg, the angle of the neck with the shaft is the same, 120°, in each of the two thigh- bones.^ In a stump in the Museum of St Thomas's Hospital, which is very short, reaching an inch only below the lesser trochanter, and also very small, indicating a lapse of many years since the amputation, though the head of the bone has a fair average size, the angle is 127°. In a short stump in the Museum of the University College, which does not show evidence of great length of time since the amputation, the angle is 185°. The variations in the angle which we have observed in differ- ent persons, under ordinary circumstances, forbid our drawing much inference from these specimens; and the two in which amputation took place in early life, and in which we are able to compare the angles on the opposite sides, are rather conflicting. Still the specimens on the whole indicate that relief from the vertical pressure in a stump during the period of growth, tends to produce a wide angle of the neck of the thigh-bone with the shaft. It might have been thought that undue weight borne by the opposite limb would have led to some alteration in the angle on the opposite side, but the specimens do not indicate that this is the case. The conclusions, therefore, at which I arrive are— 1. That the angle formed by the neck of the thigh-bone with the shaft varies considerably in different persons at any given period of life. 2. That it is smaller in short bones than in long bones; and that it is also most likely to be small when the pelvis is wide; the combination of these two conditions rendering it usually smaller in women than in men. 3. That the angle decreases during the period of growth; but that after growth has been completed it does not usually imdergo any change, even if life be continued to extreme old age. Some change may take place in exceptional cases, but as a rule the angle remains the same from the adult period till death, at whatever age that may occur. ' These four specimens are in the Cambridge Museum.