122 



ANATOMICAL NOTES AND QUERIES. 



-which was noticed by the describers of the Hemenway Collection, 

 leading one to speculate as to the nature of the work which predisposed 

 to the perforation — the mill, the shadoof, or the mattock. 



As to the sizes of the holes, they were mostly oval or elliptical, 

 with the long axis transverse or nearly so, and the distribution of their 

 ;sizes is shown in the accompanying table : — 



Twenty-seven of these specimens were young bones with un-united 

 Tipper epiphyses, 5 coexisted with the supracondylar process. The 

 opening is reniform or bilobed in 33. 



This note is only preliminary, as the subject is sufficiently important 

 to require still further study. I have, however, been able to deter- 

 mine that while in ordinary extension and flexion the tips of the pro- 

 cesses do not press on the humerus, yet by forced extension and forced 

 flexion contact can be made to take place, especially when the elbow 

 is forcibly extended, with the hand in the position of supination. In 

 the few recent examples of large perforations in the humerus, which 

 I have found in the dissecting-room, the hole was actually open in the 

 recent state ; when small, it is usually closed by membrane. 



y 2. An Ossicle above the Inner Epicondyle. — In dissecting the 

 muscles of a middle-aged male forearm I found a small sesamoid 

 bone, 5 mm. long, in that part of the common extensor tendon which 

 gives origin to the flexor sublimis digitorum. It is attached to the 

 bone by short tendinous fibres about 2 mm. long. In 1867 I described 

 a similar bone above the outer epicondyle. These ossicles are of rare 

 occurrence. In neither case was there any sign of rheumatoid disease 

 or excessive ossification elsewhere. 



3. A SuPRA-PATELLAR OssicLE, probably pathological, is described 

 by Mr Corner in the Trmis. Path. Sor. Lond., li. 55. It was recog- 

 nised by the aid of skiagraphy. In this paper Mr Corner uses the 

 phrase concerning sesamoid bones, that they are of " no morphological 

 importance." Can this be said of any normally arising structure? 

 Doubtless the author means of no value as evidence of phylogenetic 

 relationship, but the phrases are by no means synonymous. 



V 4, Os Styloideum Ulnare. — In another forearm in the Cambridge 

 <iissecting-room the ulna ended below in two flattish articular con- 

 vexities, separated by an antero-posterior sulcus. One of these, as 



