OSSEOUS SYSTEM, 177 



Q. What do you mean by an eminence of reflection? 



ft. One under which a tendon passes when it deviates > 

 from its original course. 



Q. What are the external cavities of bones and their 

 uses. 



ft. They give increased space for aponeurotic and liga- 

 mentous insertions; they receive, lodge, and protect organs 

 or portions of organs; they form grooves for the passage 

 of tendons; they transmit nerves and blood-vessels through 

 the bones, and those vessels which nourish the bones. 



Q. Are these grooves for the tendons, for example, those 

 at the ends of the long bones, formed by the friction and 

 pressure of the tendons, or are they of natural, primitive 

 osseous development? 



ft. If formed by the friction of tendons, they ought to 

 be deep or superficial in proportion to the action of the 

 muscles and the age of the subject; they should not be 

 found in the foetal cartilages; they would be very slight 

 in infancy; on the contrary, they are fully developed at 

 all periods of life, and are therefore original. 



Q. How are the cavities or foramina of nutrition in the 

 bones divided? 



ft. There is that in the body of the bone which con- 

 veys nutrition to the medullary canal; there are those 

 which nourish the cellular structure at the ends of the 

 bones; and there is a third set, viz. those which supply the 

 compact texture. 



Of the Organization of the Osseous Texture. 



Q, What is the texture peculiar to the osseous system? 

 23 



