Structure and Functions of the Body: A Hand-Book of Anatomy and Physiology for Nurses and Others Desiring a Practical Knowledge of the SubjectFiske, Annette
Science
Structure and Functions of the Body: A Hand-Book of Anatomy and Physiology for Nurses and Others Desiring a Practical Knowledge of the Subject
Fiske, Annette
Human anatomy; Physiology
The _mons Veneris_ is a rounded eminence composed of fatty tissue,
which surmounts the pubic bones and is covered with hair at puberty.
From it two prominent longitudinal folds of skin, covered with hair
on the outside, the _labia majora_, extend backward, forming the
lateral boundaries of the vulva. Within these labia again are two
thin cutaneous folds, the _labia minora_ or _nymphæ_, which run back
from the clitoris for about one and a half inches and enclose the
_vaginal orifice_. The _clitoris_ corresponds to the penis and is
just above the upper part of the labia minora. Between it and the
vagina is the _meatus urinarius_. The orifice of the vagina is partly
closed in the virgin by the _hymen_, a thin fold of mucous membrane,
which occasionally closes it completely, _imperforate hymen_. The
_fourchette_ is a small transverse fold of skin at the junction of the
labia minora posteriorly. Between the vagina and the rectum is the
_perineal body_, a somewhat triangular structure made up of many small
muscles. Its surface is known as the _perineum_. It is frequently torn
wholly or in part during childbirth and has to be sewed up.
CHAPTER XII.
THE UPPER EXTREMITIES.
The upper extremities include the shoulders, arms, forearms, wrists,
and hands and contain each thirty-two bones. The bones of the two
shoulders taken together are called the _shoulder girdle_ and consist
of the two clavicles or collar bones and the two scapulæ or shoulder
blades, which together make an almost complete girdle of the shoulders.
The =clavicle= is a long slender bone extending almost horizontally
from the sternum to the scapula and can be felt for its whole length
in the living. For the inner two-thirds it is convex anteriorly,
for the outer third concave. In woman it is generally less curved,
smoother, and more slender than in man, and as bone is rough when the
muscles attached are powerful, the right clavicle, being used more, is
generally rougher and thicker than the left. Among the muscles attached
are the large neck muscle, the _sterno-cleido-mastoid_, whose tendons
form the _presternal notch_, the _trapezius_, the _pectoralis major_,
and the _deltoid_.
Being slender and superficial the clavicle is most frequently _broken_
of any bone in the body, generally by indirect violence, as by falling
with the hand out, though old people in such a case are apt to get
_Colles’ fracture_ at the wrist. The bone generally gives way at the
juncture of the outer and middle thirds, with displacement of the
parts inward, so that the fracture is seldom compound. Since, however,
the main vessels of the upper arm, with their nerves, lie beneath the
clavicle, there is danger of their being punctured. Such serious injury
is guarded against by the presence of the _subclavius muscle_. The
clavicle is occasionally removed for _sarcoma_.
[Illustration: FIG. 68.--Bones of the upper extremity. (Toldt.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 69.--Left scapula, posterior surface (after Toldt).]
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