302 SKELETON. 



capsule. It is separated from the roughness at the bottom of 

 the acetabulum, by the existence there of a pad of very vascu- 

 lar, fine, fatty matter, from which, according to Bichat, it may 

 be raised by blowing beneath the ligament of the notch, at the 

 point where the blood vessels enter. Coming from the aceta- 

 bulum, it covers the articular face of the cotyloid ligament, and 

 is then reflected to the capsule, to which it gives a polished in- 

 ternal face, and from which it may be dissected. On reaching 

 the root of the neck of the os femoris, it forms small duplica- 

 tures, and is reflected upwards along the neck to the head, 

 being separated from the neck by periosteum, or by a fibrous 

 tissue, which M. Boyer considers a continuation of the capsule. 

 It covers all the head, except the point of attachment for the 

 round ligament, and to the latter it gives a sheath, which, at 

 the other. end, is continuous with the part of the synovial mem- 

 brane covering the fatty matter. From the latter circumstance, 

 arises a deceptive appearance of the round ligament being in- 

 serted into the roughness in the bottom of the acetabulum.* 



Of the Knee Joint. 



It is formed by the os femoris, the tibia, and the patella, the 

 particular modelling of whose surfaces, for the purpose, has 

 been described. These surfaces are all covered by a uniform 

 lamina of cartilage, and are held together by an apparatus 

 which for the number of its parts and their arrangement, makes 

 this the most composite joint in the skeleton. 



The most superficial layer of the knee joint is the fascia lata 

 of the lower extremity, which, in passing down from the thigh 

 to the leg, is so near the cavity of the articulation on each side 

 of the tendon of the patella, that it is by Weilbrecht spoken of 

 under the term of Common Investment (Involucrum Generate.) 

 It is here not only a continuation of the fascia femorig, but this 



* I have found, in one instance, Dec. 10, 1838, the capsular ligament of this 

 joint with a large opening, nine by eighteen lines, in front, and the synovial 

 membrane communicating through it with the bursa between the trcchlea of the 

 ilium and the iliacus internus muscle. A similar arrangement existed on both 

 sides of the body, every thing else being normal. Such a condition must, of 

 course, favour, under suitable circumsiarsces, the internal dislocation of the oa 

 emoris. It was repeated in another subject, Jan. 2, 1830. 



