Thomas D wight 223 



may or may not expand into a knob. It is much stronger than the 

 ligament continuing it. Here, on the contrary, the border of the for- 

 amen is thicker below than above. So far as I can remember, all the 

 connecting bands which I have seen, or of which I have seen figures, 

 run straight or even in a concave line to the inner condyle; this, on the 

 contrary, is convex. It is worth noting that in the few supracond3doid 

 processes which have been observed in children ossification begins very 

 early. Thus Macalister (5) mentions a specimen in the Cambridge Mu- 

 seum from a child 27 months old, in which the process is 3 mm. long, 

 and both it and the faint ridge above are ossified. Cunningham (6) has 

 seen the process in both arms of a child of three: on one side 4 mm. 

 long, on the other 3 mm., and both completely ossified. More remark- 

 able still, he has seen it in both arms of a full-time still-born child. 

 " In both bones the process is 5 mm. ; and further, it is fully ossified 

 from base to tip. From this it would appear that the supracondyloid 

 j)rocess is ossified along with the diaphysis, and from the same center; 

 and further, that its ossification is completed at an extremely early 

 date." There is, I think, every reason to believe that this arch was 

 originally cartilaginous. The case most nearly approaching this, which 

 I am acquainted with, is that reported by Tandler (7). It was also found 

 on the left arm of a woman. The arch, which was bony in the middle 

 and fibrous at both ends, passed over both the artery and the nerve. 

 This implies an early cartilaginous arch incomplete at the ends. 



A very thorough examination of the literature has failed to reveal the 

 record of any similar case in man. It is perhaps less surprising that it 

 has now been observed than that it has not been observed sooner.* 



A rather curious paper by Solger (8) has raised the question whether all 

 processes which at first sight seem to be supracondyloid have the same 

 significance. He describes a process which he calls anterior sive medius 

 about 1 cm. long, hooklike, and directed inwards, arising about 4 cm. 

 above the capitellum (capitulum), from which a dense cord of fat, 



* It is hardly conceivable that any anatomist who should have met with such 

 a specimen should not have made it public. I am told by a competent anato- 

 mist that he saw a foramen several years ago in a laboratory in Vienna. It 

 was also reported to me on the authority of a student that there is a similar 

 specimen among the Indian bones in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge. With 

 the kind help of Dr. Farabee of the Museum I searched for it in vain for some 

 three hours. Dr. Farabee thought that we examined nearly a thousand 

 humeri. I should hardly dare to place the number so high; but it is worth 

 noting that among several hundred Indian bones we found only two instances 

 of a supracondyloid process, one of which was small, and the other smaller. 

 I imagine that the foramen seen by the student was above the trochlea. 



