182 SKELETON. 



CHAPTER V. 



OF THE UPPER EXTREMITIES. 



THIS portion of the skeleton is divided on either side of the 

 body, into shoulder, arm, fore arm, and hand. 



SECT. I. OF THE SHOULDER, 



The shoulder consists of-two bones, the clavicle and the sca- 

 pula, and occupies the superior, lateral, and posterior part of the 

 thorax. Its shape and position are such, that it augments con- 

 siderably the transverse diameter of the upper part of the trunk, 

 taken as a whole: while the thorax alone, at this place, is actu- 

 ally smaller than it is below. The clavicle is longer, in pro- 

 portion, in the female than in the male, which increases the 

 transverse extent of the shoulder, and gives a greater space on 

 the front of the thorax for the development of the mammas. 

 This coincidence between the length of the shoulder and the 

 development of the mamma, has been particularly noticed by 

 Bichat, who says that it is almost always well marked, that very 

 rarely a voluminous bosom reposes on a small pectoral space, 

 or a small bosom is found upon a large pectoral space. In the 

 male, on the contrary, this diameter of the trunk is increased 

 principally by the breadth of the scapula, which, from its posi- 

 tion on the thorax, and its great size, gives the bulky appear- 

 ance to this part. It is evident that these modifications in the 

 frame-work of the shoulders, are connected with the natural des- 

 tinations of the two sexes. In woman the length of the clavi- 

 cle is adverse to its strength, and it is indistinctly marked by 

 muscular connexions; whereas, in man it is short, strongly 

 marked, and large. Anatomists who are fond of extending 

 such comparisons, say, also, very justly, that the pubes, which 

 perform the same office for the lower extremities that the cla- 

 vicles do for the upper, that of keeping the two apart, are, in 

 the female, both smaller and longer than in the male; that their 

 shape is not so favourable to strength or locomotion, and has a 

 special view towards the lodgement of the genital organs, and 



