POSTERIOR EXTEEM IT Y. 45 



POSTERIOR EXTREMITY. 



Os Femoris (Plate XXV.). — The os femoris is large, long, and heavy. os 



r> . i . . . . • Femoris. 



The upper end of it presents two large eminences ; an internal, comprising 

 the neck and head of the bone ; an external, which is the trochanter. The 

 internal consists of a semi-globnlar connected with a flattened cylindrical 

 portion. The semi-globnlar is smooth : it contains the articular surface, 

 in which there is no trace of a depression for an inter-articular ligament. 

 On the outside of the smooth articulating surface is a rough portion of bone, 

 corresponding with it, and contracted, so as to form a neck. The former 

 of these surfaces is twenty-two inches in circumference, the neck twenty 

 inches ; the latter, at its upper part, is four inches long, flattened from before 

 backwards, very thick and substantial. 



The trochanter is constituted by a mass sixteen inches long, and twelve 

 inches across ; very rough and irregular, particularly at its upper part. 

 This surface terminates superiorly and posteriorly in a ridge, which is 

 strongly marked behind. Between this ridge and the body of the trochanter 

 is the deep pit for the insertion of the rotating muscles. The trochanter 

 minor is scarcely a sensible rising on the surface of the bone, but is indi- 

 cated by a roughness for muscular insertion. 



The shaft presents two faces ; an anterior convex, and a posterior 

 flattened. The anterior is divided into two parts by an oblique rough edge, 

 running from within outwards ; the posterior is uniformly flattened. There 

 are also upon the shaft two lines, which divide these surfaces ; one external, 

 extending from the posterior edge of the trochanter major to the external 

 condyle, the lower part of which is quite rough. The internal edge is not 



