General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 2 (of 3)Bichat, Xavier
Science
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Bichat, Xavier
Human anatomy; Human physiology
The articular surfaces are found here as in the preceding genus, at
the extremity of the bone, having the same axis as the bone; but they
differ, 1st, in this that there are many eminences and cavities fitted
to each other, an arrangement, which, by permitting the motion in one
direction, prevents it in the others. Very commonly there are two kinds
of round prominences, called condyles, which roll from before behind,
or from without within, &c. upon two analogous cavities, that are
separated by an eminence, which is received in the space between the
condyles, as we see in the femoro-tibial, phalangeal articulations, &c.
2d. The breadth of the surfaces also distinguishes this genus from the
preceding; this breadth insures its solidity, and prevents luxations,
which besides are more to be feared when they happen here where more
ligaments must be broken than elsewhere.
There is always in this genus greater extent of motion on one side,
than on the opposite. In general flexion has always more extended
limits than extension; observe in fact the condyles of the femur, of
the phalanges, &c. they are extended much further in the first than the
second direction; why? because all our principal motions are those of
flexion, and the motions of extension are as it were but to moderate
the first, and have for their object only to bring back the limb to
the position from which it can be bent again. Hence why the number,
and the strength of the fibres are much greater in the flexors than in
the extensors; why the great vascular and nervous trunks are always on
the side of flexion, as we see in the thigh, the leg, the fore-arm,
the phalanges, &c. There is always something which limits the motion
of extension, as the olecranon in the humero-cubital articulation, the
crucial ligaments in the femoro-tibial articulation.
Though in the genus which we are describing, there is no well marked
motion of circumduction, yet when the leg or the fore-arm are in
flexion, they can move laterally and even in the form of a cone, but
not in a very evident manner. In extension this is impossible, because
the lateral ligaments being much stretched, do not yield enough to
allow the bone to incline from one side to the other.
_Fourth Genus._
Every kind of opposition and circumduction is wanting in this genus,
which presents rotation alone, as we see in the articulations of
the ulna with the radius, and the atlas with the odontoid process.
Sometimes it is a concave surface rolling upon a convex one, as at the
lower end of the radius, and at the odontoid process; sometimes it is a
convex surface moving upon a concave one, as at the head of the radius;
there is always a kind of ligament which completes the concave surface,
and which thus forms a ring turning upon the bone, or in which the bone
turns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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