286 SURGICAL APPLIED ATJATOMY. [Chap. xv. 



that when a given trunk is injured the sensory im- 

 pressions are returned by another route. Thus are 

 explained those cases where the median has been 

 sutured after accidental division, with the effect that 

 sensation has returned to the cutaneous parts supplied 

 by the nerve within a few hours. Such return of 

 sensation is probably due to the supplementary action 

 of the interlacing nerve fibres bound up with other 

 trunks, and not to the " immediate union of a divided 

 nerve," as was at one time announced. 



Epipliyses of the upper limb. The epiphyses 

 about the elbow join the shafts of their respective 

 bones at 17 years (except the tip of the internal 

 condyle, which joins at 18). The epiphyses at the 

 shoulder and wrist extremities of the bones join at 20. 

 The nutrient canals of the three bones run towards 

 the elbow. The nutrient artery of the humerus comes 

 from the brachial or infei-ior profunda, those of the 

 radius and ulna from the anterior intei'osseous. 



The nei-ve supplying the humerus is the external 

 cutaneous. The radius and ulna are ( supplied by the 

 anterior interosseous of the median. 



