The human foot and the human handHumphry, George Murray, Sir
Science
The human foot and the human hand
Humphry, George Murray, Sir
Foot; Hand
This drawing (fig. 64) represents what is seen when a section has
been made, from side to side, through the wrist and lower part of the
forearm. It gives an idea of the mode in which the several bones of the
wrist are adapted to one another and held together by ligaments. The
upper three wrist-bones (C, E, D) are joined together, so as to present
a convex surface, which is received into a wide cup, or socket, formed
by the end of the radius (A) and a ligament passing from the radius to
the ulna (B); and, in pronation and supination, the end of the radius,
together with this ligament and the wrist-bones, revolves upon the end
of the ulna.
All the bones here represented are so well fitted to one another, and
so strongly bound together, that, as I have before said, displacement
very rarely occurs among them. We sometimes _hear_ of a dislocation of
the wrist, but very seldom _see_ one. The wrist is often bruised, or
its ligaments strained, by falls upon the hand; or, what very often
happens, especially after the middle period of life, the bones of the
forearm are broken a little above the wrist.
You might think that, in such an accident, the radius only would
suffer, inasmuch as it is especially connected with the wrist-bones,
and so receives the force directly from the hand. But, if you observe
the line of contact of the radius and ulna (running from F), you will
see that it is oblique, and that its direction is such as to cause the
ulna to support the radius, and to receive some of the force from it;
and this disposition, which makes the ulna share the duties of the
radius, makes it, also, share the dangers; hence, it is very frequently
involved with the radius in fracture of the forearm.
By the joints of the wrist we are enabled to move the hand backwards
and forwards, and also slightly sideways.
_The Movements of the Hand._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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