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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    THE ANGLE OF THE NECK WITH THE SHAFT OF THE FEMUR AT DIFFERENT PERIODS OF LIFE AND UNDER DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES.^ By Professor Humphry, F.R.S. I HAVE on several occasions expressed my doubt of the correct- ness of the still generally accepted statement, that the form of the upper part of the femur undergoes a change in advancing years—the angle of the neck with the shaft becoming lessened, and the level of the head of the bone being consequently lowered. I do not know of a similar change occurring in any other part of the skeleton. So far as I am able to judge, it is not usual for the form of the bones to alter after it has been fixed in the adult condition, even under variations of weight and muscular action, unless the force exerted upon them be brought to bear in some new and unusual direction; their curves and angles remaining the same from adolescence onwards under ordinary circumstances. The angle of the edentulous jaw,'it is true, opens out, the gums of the upper and lower jaws being thereby approximated and rendered serviceable in masti- cation; but this results from the fact that the teeth and alveolary processes being removed, the pull of the powerful temporal, masseter, and internal pterygoid muscles is altered in direction, and the resistance to its tendency to elevate the angle of the jaw is lost in consequence of the removal of the parts just mentioned ; and a physiological adaptation to the altered circum- stances is thus brought about. Again, the vertebral column not unfrequently becomes bent in the aged, the dorsal curve being increased and encroaching upon or involving in itself the lumbar and the cervical curves, more particularly the former, and the bones may be correspondingly altered in form ; but this results from the failure of the extensor muscles to maintain the trunk erect, which allows the weight to the head and thorax to bear unduly upon the fore part of the column. No similar con- tingencies await the head, neck, or other parts of the upper ' Read at the Meeting of the Anatomical Society, November 7, 1888.