ON THE ANGLE OF THE ELBOW. 



BY 



FRANKLIN P. MALL. 



From the Anatomical Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University. 



With 1 Figure and 8 Tables. 



Artists consider a woman's arm beautiful when, in its extended 

 position it is straight, or nearly so, and sufficiently plump to give it 

 delicate curved lines. With the elbow flexed the upper arm is considered 

 the more beautiful the nearer its section approaches a circle. The same 

 is claimed for the forearm near the elbow. As the section approaches the 

 wrist the circle becomes an ellipse, and the farther it is from the elbow 

 the more marked is its eccentricity. With the forearm flexed and semi- 

 prone the long axis of the ellipse is directed diagonally downward and 

 outward. It is self-evident that artists do not make either cylindrical 

 or conical arms; they prefer as a model an arm whose section is nearly 

 circular. The foreann is always a little flat, more so in supination than 

 in pronation. In antique statues the upper arm is found to be more 

 nearly circular, while in those of the renaissance a lateral flattening is 

 shown. It appears then that the ideal arm of artists changes from time 

 to time, possibly because the models before them changed correspond- 

 ingly. At any rate the shape of the upper arm of the renaissance 

 approaches the modem anatomical arm more than does that of antiquity. 



The form of the ideal woman's arm is caused in great part by the layer 

 of subcutaneous fat drawn over the structure below. In the ideal man's 

 arm the structures below, especially the muscles, protrude and form 

 marked lines indicating strength. And it is considered beautiful by 

 many to show some of these lines in a delicate way in" woman's arm. A 

 slight outline of the deltoid, biceps and triceps does not make the arm 

 appear masculine provided it is built upon a delicate skeleton. 



The beautiful arm, then, is one that is plump, round, tapering and 

 relatively straight. Differences are, of course, to be expected, due to 

 race, sex and age. The amount of fat upon the arm differs much between 

 the ages of 15, 25 and 45. The same seems to be true regarding the 

 angle of the elbow. The arms of young girls are said to be straighter and 



American Journal of Anatomy. — Vol. IV. 

 31 



