ON THE CANCELLATED STRUCTURE OF 

 SOME OF THE BONES OF THE HU- 

 MAN BODY 



WITH the exception of the great work of Bour- 

 gery and Jacob, Traite Complete de 1'Anatomie 

 de 1'Homme, and the excellent and instructive 

 Outlines of Human Osteology, by F. 0. Ward, 

 nearly ah 1 systematic treatises are deficient in de- 

 scriptions of the mechanical arrangement of the 

 cancellated structure of bones. The student will 

 look in vain through the works of Cruveilhier, 

 Meckel, Bichat, Von Behr, Weber, Soemmering, 

 and Wilson, for any allusion to the manner in 

 which the cancelli are arranged, with reference to 

 the weight which they sustain, and the distribu- 

 tion of that weight to the parts on which they 

 rest. The whole subject is passed by without 

 any other notice than that which would be nat- 

 urally suggested in describing the " spongy," 

 " reticulated," or " cancellated structure," in con- 

 trast with the more dense " compact substance," 

 forming the external walls and crust of the differ- 

 ent bones. This is the more remarkable, when 

 it is remembered that the bones have been so 

 perseveringly studied, not only as regards their 



