BONES. 377 



in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, measures 

 eight feet four inches. On the other hand, Bebe, the dwarf of Stanislaus, 

 King of Poland, was only thirty-three inches high ; and a Polish noble- 

 man, Boruwlaski, is said to have measured twenty-eight French inches, 

 at twenty-two years of age. Mr. Mathews, the comedian, states, how- 

 ever, that he measured him late in life and found that his height was three 

 feet three inches ; and that he had undoubtedly grown an inch a short 

 time before he was eighty-one, when he measured three feet four. 1 He 

 had a sister, whose height was twenty-one inches. 2 Sir George Simp- 

 son, 3 in one of the villages of Siberia, saw a dwarf, about forty years 

 of age, thickset, with a large head, and barely two feet and a half high. 

 "Eor his inches, however," says Sir George, "he was a person of great 

 importance, being the wise man of the place, and the great arbiter in 

 all disputes, whether of love or of business." The celebrated dwarf 

 called General Tom Thumb, was seen by the author in 1847. He was 

 then said to be fifteen years old; weighed at the Mint twenty pounds 

 and two ounces, and was twenty-eight inches high. His intellect was 

 evidently limited, childlike. 



The bones may be divided into short, broad, or flat, and long. Short 

 bones are met with in parts of the body, which require to be both solid 

 and movable: in the hands and feet, for example; and in the spine. 

 Flat or broad bones form the parietes of cavities, and aid materially in 

 the movements and attitudes, by affording an extensive surface for the 

 attachment of muscle. Long bones are chiefly intended for locomo- 

 tion ; and are met with only in the extremities. The shape of the body 

 or shaft and of the extremities of a bone, merits attention. The shaft 

 or middle portion is the smallest in diameter, and is usually cylindrical. 

 The extremities, on the other hand, are expanded; a circumstance, 

 which not only adds to the solidity of the articulations, but diminishes 

 the obliquity of the insertion of the tendons, passing over them, into 

 the bones. In their interior is a medullary canal or cavity, which con- 

 tains the medulla, marrow or pith: a secretion, whose office will be a 

 theme for after inquiry. One great advantage of this canal is, that it 

 makes the bone a hollow cylinder, and thus diminishes its weight. On 

 many of the bones, prominences and cavities are perceptible. The 

 eminences bear the generic name of apophyses or processes. Their 

 great use is to cause the tendons to be inserted at a much greater angle 

 into the bones they have to move. It may be seen, hereafter, that the 

 nearer such insertion is to the perpendicular to the lever, the greater 

 will be the effect produced. 



The cavities are of various kinds. Some are articular: others for 

 the insertion, reception, or transmission of parts. Those of insertion 

 and reception afford space for attachment of muscles; those of trans- 

 mission, &c., are frequently incrusted with cartilage; converted into 

 canals by means of ligament, and furnished with a synovial membrane, 



1 A Continuation of the Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian, by Mrs. Mathews, 

 Amer. edit, i. 165, Philad., 1839. 



8 Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, &c., by W. Lawrence, p. 434, Lond., 1819. 



3 An Overland Journey round the World, Amer. edit., Part ii. p. 203, Philad., 1847. 



