Fig. 165. Frontal Section through the (Right) Hip-joint. 



This secfioti is not quite vertical, but is directed obliquely from above and in 

 front, downwards and backwards. The Hip-joint is the most deeply situated 

 of all the large joints in the body, and is covered on all sides by thick muscles. 



Access is obtained more easily from the outer side over the Great Tro- 

 chanter, because in this situation there are fewer Vessels and Nerves. The 

 Socket of the joint is incompletely covered by cartilage at the Fossa Acetabuli 

 which is filled with fat. At this point, the bony wall is very thin, and easily 

 allows of perforation by disease, which may subsequent!}' extend in the Pelvis. 

 The Socket is deepened by a dense fibrous ring, the Glenoid Ligament. The 

 Capsule of the joint extends on to the Femur, — to a varying extent at different 

 parts — . In front it reaches the Intertrochanteric Line, behind it is inserted on 

 to the Neck of the Femur, about Va^h inch below the middle of the neck, so that 

 a considerable part of the Neck lies within the Capsule and fractures of the 

 Femur may consequently^ be completely Intra-Capsular. The Capsule is .strongest 

 in front, owing to the IHo-Femoral Ligament (Bertini, Bigelow) which passes, from 

 the Antero-Inferior Iliac Spine and the bone internal to this, over the Capsule 

 with which it blends, to the Intertrochanteric Line. Superficial to BiGELOW's 

 Ligament, lie the 2 Tendons of origin of the Rectus Femoris Muscle which 

 arise from the Antero-inferior Spine and the brim of the Acetabulum. The angle 

 between the axis of the shaft and the axis of the neck (Angle of inclination of 

 the Neck) of the Femur varies from 116'-' to 138° (MIKULICZ) but is usually 

 about 120" to 133", the average being 125". As a rule the longer the neck, the 

 greater the angle. 



The architecture of the cancellous tissue is briefly as follows: A pressure 

 system of Cancelli converges from the surface, commencing at right angles to the 

 surface on the inner side; a traction system crosses the former at right angles, 

 forming arches, which run from the outer compact tissue with their convexity 

 directed upwards to the middle and lower parts of the head, and the adjacent 

 portions of the neck. The third (muscular traction) system begins at the Great 

 Trochanter at right angles with the insertion of muscles into it, and passes 

 inwards forming arches with their convexity' directed upwards: this system crosses 

 the former at an angle of 45", together with the first set, this forms the strong 

 vertical plane of compact bone which Merkei. calls the Femoral Spur (Calcar 

 Femoral el 



