PELVIC LIMBS 



697 



VARIATIONS IN FORM AND DEVELOPMENT. 



The femur exhibits such general changes as are dependent merely 

 upon the relative increase or decrease of its diameters ; hence we find 

 long and narrow femora, short and broad femora, and femora with more 

 or less prominent extremities. The lateral angle which the head and 

 neck make with the shaft varies between one hundred and twenty and 

 one hundred and twenty-five degrees ; it appears to vary more because 

 the trochanter is sometimes above the level of the head and sometimes 

 below it. The upper margin of the neck may be straight or deeply 

 incised. The forward angle of the head and shaft is also slightly 

 variable. The lesser trochanter is occasionally inconspicuous ; in 



