PELVIC LIMBS 667 



The body of the pubes occupies the angle of the bone. It is thin 

 and quadrilateral. On the outer side it is continuous with the hori- 

 zontal ramus ; on the median side it joins the body of the other pubes ; 

 and below, posteriorly, it is continuous with the descending ramus. 



It has a flat external (ventral) surface (Fig. 518), which affords 

 attachment to the adductor femoris muscle. 



Its internal (dorsal) surface (Fig. 519) is flat from side to side, 

 slightly convex from above downward, and forms the anterior median 

 part of the ventral wall of the pelvic cavity. 



Its median border is rough, and by means of an intervening plate 

 of cartilage forms, with the opposite bone, part of the symphysis. 



The posterior border is emarginate, and is part of the edge of the 

 obturator foramen. 



Its anterior border is transverse : near its median end is a more or 



* 



less well developed projection, the spine of the pubes, to which are 



attached the rectus abdominis and some fibres of the external oblique 

 muscle of the abdominal wall (Fig. 518). The portion of the border 

 median to the spine forms with its fellow of the opposite side the 

 crest of the pubes. Lateral to the spine the border is sometimes 

 swollen and passes into the anterior border of the horizontal ramus. 



The horizontal ramus extends upward and outward from the body, 

 and includes at its outer end the separate ossification known as the 

 cotyloid bone. In its median part it is slender and sometimes tri- 

 angular on cross-section, but it becomes wider and more flattened as 

 it passes outward. It presents ventral and dorsal surfaces. 



The ventral (external) surface (Fig. 518) is bounded in front by 

 the continuation, downward from the ilium, of the faintly emarginate 

 ilio-pectineal line, and behind by the deeply emarginate border which 

 forms the edge of the obturator foramen. On the outer side it can 

 be divided only artificially, in the adult, from the ilium and ischium 

 on the imaginary lines already described. It is convex from side to 

 side and also from above downward ; it faces downward and outward. 

 Its external outer part is excavated to form a fifth of the acetabuluin. 

 In some specimens a ridge which runs parallel to the long axis of the 

 ramus divides the inner part of the ventral surface into anterior and 

 posterior parts, thereby producing the triangular cross-section. The 

 ventral surface gives origin to part of the adductor femoris muscle. 

 On the lower part of the ilio-pectineal line are attached fibres of the 



