130 Wyman on the Cancelli of Bones. 
thigh, as given in his tract on Animal Mechanics. One who 
examines this bone, he says “will find that the head of the 
thigh stands obliquely off from the shaft, and that the whole 
weight bears upon what is termed the inner trochanter ; and 
to that point, as to a buttress, all those delicate fibres converge, 
or point from the head and neck of the bone.”? A careful 
examination of a section of the part in question will show 
that this description of the cancelli is imperfect as well as 
incorrect; that the cancelli do not centre on the lesser tro- 
chanter, as this process is situated not on the under side of 
the neck, but on the posterior and inner face of the upper por- 
tion of the shaft, and does not, therefore, come within their 
range. "The cancelli converge and bear upon the under tbick- 
ened and arched shell of bone, but their common centre is 
at least an inch exterior to and below it. 
Bourgery and Jacob, in speaking of the internal structure 
of the head and neck, describe the first as provided with 
cancelli forming circular areolee ; the second as made up of 
two portions —an inferior one consisting of “small parallel 
columns, which evidently transmit the weight of the superior 
segment of the head on to the inferior border of the neck. 
Those parts which are out of the line of pressure, (hors de la 
ligne de pression,) having nothing to support, will be formed 
of a more delicate tissue." They also recognize a mass © 
fibres which enclose the vascular canals, and which ‘“ seems to 
have for its object the union of the head and trochanter with 
each other and with the shaft of the bone.” “It communicates 
with the head and neck by a fasciculus of radiating fibres, and 
with the trochanter by a strong lamina, which bifurcates; 
intercepting two reticular spaces, and externally joins the 
compact substance.  Inferiorly this lamina is again made 
to bear on the compact substance by a bundle of vertical 
columns; the central mass descends vertically for the space 
of an inch and a half in the direction of the axis of the bone; 
"and then expands into a cone which joins the circumference. 
; * Op, cit., p. 14. | 
