Karl Pearson and Adelaide (J. Davin 
139 
The first i-eference is in the Liber de ossibiis, and contains the passage to which we 
have ah'eady referred ; 
Quod si quod ossiculum alilii utpote iu cordc, in naso, in gutture, itemque in aliquo ex digitis, 
ut quae a sesami similitudine sesamoide vocant, aliudque ejus generis deprehenditur, non est 
uecessarium hoc opere pertractare *. 
It will be seen that while the name sesamoid bone is of very early origin, the 
existence of the fahellae, the first sesamoids of the knee-joint to be talked about, if 
known was not recorded until 1555 and then not accurately, not indeed before 
Eustachius. 
The second passage occurs in the De iisu pcwtium corporis liii ma ni-f and runs as 
follows : 
Nonum aliquis potuit hoc carpi os numerare, sed non est numeratum ab anatomicis, sicut nec 
aliquod eorum, quae a-qa-afineibPi, a sesami leguminis minuti specie, vocantur, quae multis manuum 
et pedum articulis natura ex abundanti velut auctarium eircumponet securitatis gratia. 
Another reference occurs in the De ksu partium, Lib. ill. Cap. viii, where Galen 
mentions the two metatarsial phalangeal sesamoids of the great toe. It runs as 
follows : 
Quinetiam ei parti plantae, que magno digito praeposita est, duo [ossa or sesamoidea ?] videntur 
subjeeta es.se infei'iori regione, veluti sustentacula quaedam & stabilamenta, ut prius os niagni 
digiti praedictae plantae parti, omnino jam in terram defixae conjugatur, undique, opinor, huic 
parti pedis natura suppeditante securitatem, ceu niultum laboraturae propter praepositam sibi 
concavitatem & velut fornicem ossium. [Basel edition, 1561, Prima Classis, p. 2.59.] 
Neither the Latin translation, nor the original Greek [Basel edition, 1538, p. 397], 
use the term sesamoid. But the word ossa seems omitted. It is supplied in the 
French translation {De I'usage des parties du corps huinain, Paris, 1659, p. 120). 
Now it is probable that these were the special sesamoid bones of the Greek 
anatomists, and they are bean-like rather than irregular or even lens-shaped. It is 
difficult to find a resemblance in them to the seed of the existing forms of sesame, 
as the reader will see by examining our Plate I, Fig. 2. 
It will be noted that these passages from the real writings of Galen make 
the comparison with the sesame directly and not with its seed. It is otherwise in 
our third passage taken from the section De anatomia oris of the Liber de anatomia 
virorum ascribed to Galen J : 
Veuiunt autem duo musculi ei ab additamentis sesaminis, id est quibu.sdaui parvis ossiculis 
ad modum seminis sesami, et sunt supplementa spondylorum colli. 
Thus in the earliest traces we have of sesamoids the name seems to have stood 
for any small bone of no recognised importance, which in some way was like sesame, 
a small .species of pulse. The earlier references may, the later does indicate com- 
* Galeni Lihrorum Para Qnitita, Basileae, 1.5:J8, p. 727. We can liarilly expect that Galen would 
have anticipated the great evolutionary importance which the " sesamoidea gutturis " would attain to in 
later ages I 
t Liber ii, Cap. xii, Galeni Lihrorum Prima Classis, Basileae, 1561, p. 248. 
J Galen's Works, Basileae, 1561, p. 49 c. 
