224 



ANATOMY. 



and consists very frequently of two, three, or four 

 portions, although in advanced age it is one solid 

 bone ; it is triangular, or irregularly shaped, and is 

 placed at the extremity of the sacrum. It is sup- 

 posed to have some resemblance to a cuckoo's bill, 

 and hence its name. It sustains the rectum, or 

 lower portion of the bowels, and prevents the rup- 

 ture of the perineum in child labour, one of the 

 most distressing accidents that can befal a woman, 

 and it sometimes happens that in labour it is sepa- 

 rated from the sacrum. 



The pelvis, or bones which constitute that part 

 of the skeleton, are connected superiorly with the 

 last lumbar vertebra, which is united to the os sa- 

 crum, and tin- ><icrum laterally with the ossa inom- 

 menata, while each of the innominata, or hip hones, 

 is connected with its fellow by sympbisis at the os 

 pubis, or pubic portion already alluded to, and 

 with the sacrum posteriorly, and to the head of the 

 thigh bone, which, as already stated, is lodged in the 

 acetabulum. These united bones form the pelvis, 

 on which the spine rests, and which retains the 

 gravid uterus in its situation, constitutes the aceta- 

 bulum for the thighs, and gives attachment to 

 numerous powerful muscles and ligaments, also 

 affording lodgment for the internal organs of gen- 

 eration, the urinary bladder, the rectum, and occa- 

 sionally part of the small intestines. In conse- 

 quence of its subserviency to all these important 

 offices, it is necessary that it should be permanently 

 fixed and immovable, but more especially on account 

 of the great force applied to its parietes by the 

 natural mechanism of parturition, or child labour. 

 The obstetric properties of the pelvis can only be 

 learned from that of a well-formed adult woman, that 

 is, one eighteen or twenty years of age, which is 

 the period of life, in temperate climates, at which 

 she is capable of becoming a mother, with perfect 

 safety to herself, and to her infant. At an earlier 

 age, the pelvis is not sufficiently strong, or deve- 

 loped, to bear the burden of pregnancy, or force of 

 parturition, and at a later age the bones which 

 form the osseous canal of this part are too firmly 

 articulated, and their ligaments too rigid and strong 

 to allow the commodious and easy passage of the 

 infant. At both ages, women purchase the plea- 

 sures of maternity at a very dear rate, generally at 

 the risk of their own, and that of their infant's, 

 although there are some exceptions, for we have 

 seen a first and easy natural labour in a girl of 

 fifteen, and another in a woman who bad arrived 

 at forty-eight before she became a mother. It may 

 not, however, be out of place shortly to notice the 

 peculiarities of the male and female pelvis. In 

 the male, the pelvis preserves its infantile properties, 

 it is deeper than in woman, its short or sacro-pubic 

 diameter is not more than three inches, and the 

 transverse measures four and a half, and bis-ischiatic 

 three and a half. The arch of the pubis is short 

 and triangular, not expanded as in the female. 

 The sacrum is less hollow, and the bones are 

 thicker and stronger in general, and more solid, so 

 as to render it physically impossible for an infant 

 of full growth to pass through the male pelvis, and 

 hence the absurdity of the old fictions, that her- 

 maphrodites were fathers and mothers on different 

 occasions; but indeed there has never been known 

 yet to exist such a being as a perfect human herma- 

 phrodite. 



Tbe pelvis in the female is broader at the hips, 

 as well as in every other part; and here nature 

 seems to have sacrificed the facilities of motion, 



as may be seen when a female attempts to run, 

 to the advantages of pregnancy and parturition. 

 There is another most striking peculiarity: the 

 articulations of the female pelvis are not anchy- 

 losed, while they are firmly ossified in the male. 

 Observation, however, abundantly proves that with 

 many women the pelvis retains the form which 

 characterised it during infancy :md puberty, and 

 which nearly approaches to that of the male, but 

 such a pelvis is considered deformed, and is some- 

 times called a false pelvis. 



The pelvis may be deformed in its rim, cavity 

 and outlet, and offer serious impediments to the 

 passage of the infant, or render delivery dangerous, 

 difficult, or impossible. On the contrary, it may 

 be too capacious, or possess excess of amplitude, 

 thereby affording too ready a passage to the foetus. 

 In the latter case, delivery will suddenly take 

 place, often unexpectedly, and in extraordinary sit- 

 uations, as on the high-way, in a stage-coach, or in 

 the sitting room, before the woman can retire to her 

 apartment. Ample evidence is afforded of thi- 

 not ouly in works on obstetricity or midwifery, 

 but even occasionally in the publjc newspapers ; 

 and by the way, this is one reason, among many 

 others, why every man liable to be called upon to 

 act as a jurist, should be acquainted with at least 

 the general facts of anatomical science, as women 

 have not unfrequently been tried for child-murder, 

 when it has often appeared in evidence that they 

 had been delivered, or that the child was born in 

 circumstances they could neither foresee nor pre- 

 vent, and had been killed by the fall, or suffocated, or 

 drowned in some substance among which it might 

 drop. In fine, the obstetrician must study this part 

 distinct from the rest of the body, as one intimately 

 connected with his art, as the book of nature, 

 which must be always consulted, and which affords 

 the best precepts for practice. A knowledge of 

 its peculiarities, its regions, dimensions, direction?, 

 planes, axis, structure, connections, and varieties, 

 are all indispensably necessary to those who wish 

 to practise with dexterity the obstetric art, as by 

 ignorance of these many motners and children have 

 been sacrificed. 



The Upper Extremities. 



The upper extremity, (for we shall notice them 

 in the singular, seeing that the description of the 

 one is almost entirely the same as that of the other,) 

 consists of the collar bone, or clavicle, (No. 18. fig. 

 1.) the shoulder blade, or scapula, (13. fig. 2.) the 

 bone of the arm, called the os brachii, or os hum- 

 eri, (20. fig. 1.) the foramen, composed of the ulna 

 and radius, the former, (21. fig. 1.) and the latter, 

 (22. fig. 1.) and the hand, consisting of the carpus, 

 or wrist, (19. fig. 2.) the metacarpus, (20. fig. 2.) 

 and the fingers, or digiti manus, (21. fig. 2.) 



The shoulders consist of two bones, the clavi- 

 cle and scapula, which are united together at the 

 acromion process, (15. fig. 2.) immediately over 

 the top of the os brachii, or bone of the arm, and 

 form what is properly termed the shoulder. 



The clavicle, or collar bone, so termed from its 

 resemblance to an ancient key, is a long, roundish 

 bone, shaped like the letter s, and its situation is 

 very distinctly seen in the plate, (18. fig. l..or 

 12. fig. 2.) This small bone performs some very 

 important offices, connecting the shoulder blade 

 and bone of the arm. to the thorax defending the 

 subclavian vessels, regulating the motions of the 

 scapular, and is in fact the axis on which the whole 

 upper extremity rolls, the scapular serving rather 



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