Karl Pearson and Adelaide G. Davin 
173 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 
The first five plates represent historically the development of the anatomists' conception of the 
sesamoids of the knee-joint. 
Plate I. Fig. 2 shows after Pfitzner the sesamoids of first metatarsal of the foot in man. Such 
sesamoids of the digits were certainly known to the Greeks. They are the most conspicuous and we 
cannot demonstrate that the Greeks knew those of the knee-joint. It is reasonable to suppose that the 
seed of the plants the Greeks called sesame should somewhat resemble these sesamoids. 
Fig 1. First drawing of the fahellae. It occurs in Casserius' Tabulae aiiatumicae of 1682 which 
illustrate Adrian Spiegel's De humaiii corporis fahrica. The latter following Vesalius asserts the 
existence of sesamoids in both heads of the external (jastrocnemivs, and they are thus somewhat naively 
exhibited by Casserius. There is no trace of the " Knotenpunkt" of actuality. 
Fig. 3. See under Plate IV. 
Plate II, Fig. 4. Diagram from the Altorf 1715 dissertation, De chylosi Foetus in utero, of C. .J. Trew. 
The diagram shows none of the muscular relationships of the external /a&eZ/a. F. V shows the sesamoid 
resting in what Trew thought its customary situation, " os sefamoideum insidens cavitate condyli 
exterioris in omnibus femoribus conspicuae." F. VI exhibits " os sesamoideum femoris magnitudine 
naturali extra situni." Trew makes no reference to an internal fabella in his supposed discovery. The 
" conspicuous cavity in all femora " appears to be the roundish impression for the insertion of the lateral 
head of M. gastrocneiniun on the external epicondyle, a situation where the sesamoid is not iu our 
experience ever found. 
Fig. 5. This drawing is taken from Laurence Heister's Cutupcndium Anatoviicuin, Edition 1748. 
There is much in it to indicate that Heister notwithstanding his paper of 1717 (see our p. 150 ftn.) 
copied Trew's illustration, but added the mesial fabella, which he rests on the horizontal surface of the 
condyle in immediate association with the supracondylar tubercle. 
Plate III, Fig. 6. Peter Camper's drawing of the external fabella from his 1754 memoir: " Vom 
Bruch der Kniescheibe und des Olecranon" (S. 68 of the Vermiachte Schriftcn of 1801). AKIl, is the 
tendon of the outer head of gastrocnemius " worin sich ein Knochelgen {ossiculum sesamoideum.) f. g. findet, 
welches man in dem inneren Bauch derselben nie sieht. " /. g. is not marked on the figure, but is pre- 
sumably the shaded portion. If so, the relation of this sesamoid to the other muscles and ligaments is 
far from clearly indicated. 
Plate IV, Fig. 7. A drawing after Sir George M. Humphry's figure in his A Treatise on the Human 
Skeleton, 1858 (Plate LI, Fig. 2). Postei'ior view of left knee-joint, described as follows : A, lignmen- 
tum posticum ; the tiiickest portion of it ascends from B the semimembranosus to C the outer head of 
gastrocnemius. D a sesamoid bone at its junctidU with tlie latter. E inner head of gastrocnemius, also 
connected with ligamentuin posticum. F popliteus muscle, raised a little to show G the posterior peroneo- 
tibial ligament. H external lateral ligament. Humphry thus indicated the relation of the sesamoid to 
the ligamentum posticum. 
Fig. 3 of Plate I (placed there for economy of space) is from the historical order to be considered here. 
It is copied from Gillette's memoir of 1872 (see our p. 155). a is the external fabella in situ, b the 
gastrocnemius and c the situation where it rests on the posterior surface of the condyle. The situation 
is fairly in accordance with that suggested by Humphry, but Gillette does not indicate the relationship 
of the sesamoid to other ligaments and muscular attachments. 
Figs. 8 and 9 of Plate IV and 10, 11, 12 of Plate V are all taken from W. Gruber's great memoir of 
1876, which is the first to illustrate carefully the muscular attachments to the sesamoid. 
In all these figures 8 to 12, except Figs. 9 and 10 where by an unfortunate slip of the engraver 5 has 
been placed for 6, the system of lettering is the same, namely : 
1 = femur, 2 = tibia, 3 = fibula, 4 = sesamoid. n = knee-capsule, b - ligamentum. pupliteum, c — long 
external lateral ligament or ligamentum anticum, d = short external lateral ligament, or ligamentum pusti- 
cum, e = external me)u'.scus j/fHita^is, /= great adductor muscle, g = M. gastrocnemius interims, h = M. semi- 
membranosus, i = M. biceps femoris, k = M. gastrocnemius e.rternus, 1 = 31. plantaris, m = M. popliteus. 
