6  CULPRPERs ENGLISH PHYSICIAN, 
asit were.acircle: they-alfo make.a perfect articulation with the breaft-bone. Phe 
illegitimate or baftard ribs are the five lower ribs, which are fhorter, fmaller,, and fofter, 
not ‘reaching: to. the breaft-bone : they are fenni-circular-and arched. without, hollow 
within : they terminate into Jonger griftles than the true ribs, which, -beingturned 
back upwards, ftick one to another, the laft excepted, which isthe leatt, and fticks . 
‘tonone, The eleventh rib, and fometimes the twelfth, :are tied to the feptum tranf- 
verfam ;:andfometimes thelaft grows to the oblique defcendent mufcles of the belly, 
without the midriff ; or has the circum{cription of its proper mufcle. ‘The ule of the 
. ribs isto defend the breaft, and the heart, lungs, and other bowels, therein contain- 
ed; ,.as.alfo.to help the motion,of, the breaft and parts adjacent, in fuftaining the . 
‘mufcles and fiefhy parts thereof. 
The fernum, or breakt-bone, is placed upon the fore-part of the cheft, and. pes 
upon the ribs: its fubftance is partly boney, but fpungy and red; partly griftly; its 
figure is convex, broad, and long. Iti is compofed of three bones, as may be feen 
in young people ; but in old men it commonly appears but one: they are diftinguifh- 
ed by, tranfverfe lines, and are knit together by fynchondrofis, for griftles are inter- 
pofed like ligaments. Under this is the pit of the ftomach, where the upperand left 
orifice is, called /erobiculus cordis. The ufe of the fternum is, firft, to defend the 
heart (like a thield) from outward dangers :.fecondly, to uphold the mediaftinum : 
thirdly, to collect and faften the ribs. 
The collar-bones, being in number two, ,are called claviculc, keys,: ‘becaufe they 
fhut up the breaft.or thorax; and as it were lock the fcapula, or fhoulder-blades, to 
the fternum. They are fituated crofs-wife, under the lower part of the neck, on the 
_ top of the thorax on each fide: externally, they.are convex, onthe infide.a little 
concave : their fubftance is thick, but fiftulous and {pungy, and therefore eafily bro- 
ken; their fuperficies are rough and uneven. Their ufeis ro aflift in the various 
‘motions of the arms; as alfo to uphold thefhoulder-blades, that they fhould: not fall 
‘tpon the breaft, together with the thoulder-bone ; moreover the. bone of the: atm 
refts upon this bone, as upon a prop, that it may bethe more eafily moved. upwards 
and backwards, Hence brutes have no collar-bone,, the.ape, Suey ‘hedar- ‘hog 
and. sony excepted. 
Ider- is a broad and. et bone, refting upon + the upper ribs ‘pebind, 
2 fhield. _ Its fabltanceis hard and folid ; its figure almoft triangular, the out- 
fide fomewhat arched, but the infide hollow ; it has alfo a {pine or fharp point, 
looking both above and beneath the cavities, called interfeapulia, n the infide af 
this bone, about. the, middle, there is a holey by which a vein doth pals ‘for its 
—hovrifhment, _It-has five epiphyfes, three at theinfide, and two at the. bafis : a 
