﻿Bones of the Skeleton as an Index of Nutrition. 201 



XIX. The Surface Details of the Bones of the Skeleton as an 



Index of Nutrition. By A. Campbell Geddes, M.D., 



Demonstrator of Anatomy, University of Edinburgh. 

 [Plate XII.] 



(Read 23rd November 1908 ; received 16th December 1908.) 



Introductory. 



Everyone who has worked for a considerable period in the 

 dissecting rooms of a great anatomy department, must have 

 been struck by the extraordinary variation in the degree of 

 development of the muscular impressions, crests, or 

 tubercles which exist upon all the bones of the appendicular 

 skeleton of the human body. 



That these variations have not some meaning is inconceiv- 

 able. That they are the expression of some underlying 

 physiological process it is inevitable to conclude. Even 

 partially to understand what this process is, it is necessary 

 (first) briefly to review the existing beliefs with regard to the 

 meaning of the bone crests and tubercles ; (second) to 

 consider some points in connection with the theory of 

 growth ; (third) to examine into the meaning of the histo- 

 logical phenomena of the process of ossification. 



1. The Existing Beliefs with Kegard to the Determina- 

 tion OF the Secondary Characteristics of the 

 Bones of the Appendicular Skeleton. 



Topinard,! speaking of the sexual differences in the 

 skeleton, says : " The principles which govern the sexual 

 differences in adult age may be summed up in a few words. 

 All the parts of the female skeleton are lighter and more 

 frail ; the general contour is more soft and graceful ; the 

 eminences, processes, or tubercles are smaller and less 

 marked. If there be one well established physiological fact 

 it is this — that the asperities which serve for the insertion of 

 muscles are developed in proportion to the activity of those 



1 Topinard, Anthropology. Chapman & Hall, London, 1878, p. 143. 

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