50 SKELETON. 



two sides are perfectly alike in shape and size.* Some of the 

 bones are found in this plane, being intersected by it into two 

 equal parts or halves : others are somewhat removed from it, 

 and are in pairs. This arrangement antagonizes the two sides 

 of the body, and qualifies it for all its motions. 



CHAPTER I. 



OF THE BONES, GENERALLY, 

 SECT. I. NUMBER, TEXTURE. 



THE number of the bones is commonly the same in every 

 person of middle age ; but they are less numerous then, than in 

 infancy, from several of them having been originally formed in 

 pieces which coalesce. The farther fusion in advanced life, of 

 contiguous bones into each other, diminishes still more their 

 number. It is, however, generally agreed to view the follow- 

 ing as distinct : 



For the Head An occipital bone, a frontal, a sphenoidal, an 

 ethmoidal, two parietal; two temporal, each containing the 

 small bones of the tympanum ; two superior maxillary, two 

 palate, two malar or zygomatic, two nasal, two unguiform or 

 lachrymal bones, two inferior turbinated, a vomer, and an in- 

 ferior maxillary : ? .-^\, 



* The exact harmony or symmetry of form and size, between the two sides of 

 the body, as a general rule, is rather hypothetical than real in nature. It is a 

 point of general notoriety, that the right side enjoys more force than the left, and 

 this will "be found attended with greater development. There are few persons 

 that have not the face and the spine somewhat out of shape from the bones on 

 one side growing larger than on the other, the right, commonly, prevailing over 

 the left : hence we sec a nose somewhat turned; and a spine curved, the convexity 

 of which is to the right side, with the attendant consequences on the position of 

 the ribs the scapula) and the sternvm. This condition of false growth is exhi- 

 bited, in all degrees, from a deviation almost imperceptible to one amounting to 

 deformity. The left side is said, also, to be more liable to diseases. Copious re- 

 ports on these several subjects as well as on human stature, generally, at all 

 ages, have been made by the French Anatomists : for a summary exposition of 

 which, see Malgaigne, Anat. Chirurg. Vol. I. Chap. 1. Paris, 1838. 



