The workes of that famous chirurgion Ambrose Parey translated out of Latin and compared with the French. by Tho: Johnson. Whereunto are added three tractates our of Adrianus Spigelius of the veines, arteries, & nerves, with large figures. Also a table of the bookes and chapters.

CHAP. IV. Of the Clavicles or Coller-bones, and Ribs.

IF we should handle these parts after the common order, we should now treat of the Muscles of the Chest which move the Arm, and serve for respiration, and which first offer themselves to our sight.

But for that they cannot be fitly shewed, unless we hurt the Muscles of the Shoulder-blade and Neck, therefore I think it better to defer the explanation of these Muscles, until such time as I have shewed the rest of the contained and containing parts, not only of the Chest, but also of the Head, that having finished these, we may come to a full demonstration of all the rest of the Muscles, beginning with those of the Head, which we first meet with, and so prosecuting the rest even to the Muscles of the Feet, as they shall seem to offer themselves more fitly to dissection, that so, as much as lyes in us, we may shun confusion.

Wherefore to return to our proposed task; after the foresaid Muscles, come the Coller-bones, the Sternon, and Ribs.

But that these parts may be the more easily understood, we must first know what a Bone is, and whence the differences thereof are drawn.

Therefore a Bone is a part of our body most terrestrial, cold, dry, hard, wanting all manifest sense, if the teeth be excepted.

I said [manifest sense,] that you may understand that the parts have a double sense of Touching, the one manifest, such as resides in the flesh, skin, membranes, nerves, teeth, and certain other parts; the other obscure, yet which may suffice to discern the helping and hurting tactile quali∣ties, such sense the Bowels and Bones have; for very small fibers of the nerves are disseminated to these parts by mediation of their coat, or membrane, I say, so small that they can scarce be dis∣cerned by the eyes, unless (as Galen saith) by plucking such coats away from the parts.

But it is no marvail, if Nature would have these parts in like manner to have such small veins, contrary to the lungs and most part of the muscles, only to yield so much nourishment to the part, as should be needful; for seeing the substance of the Bones is cold, hard, dense and solid, it wastes the less.

Wherefore they need not so much blood for their nourishment, as the hot and soft parts; and besides the lesser Bones have neither Veins ••or Arteries, but draw fit nourishment, only by the force of the attractive faculty implanted in them.

The differences of Bones are taken from many things, as from their Apophyses, Epiphyses, Gri∣sles, Necks, Heads, Solidity, Cavity, Eminencies, Marrow, Consistence, Bigness, Number, Figure, Site. We will prosecute all these as they shall offer themselves in the demonstration of the Bones; to which doctrine we will give a beginning at the Clavicles or Coller-bones.

The Clavicles are two very hard and solid Bones, without any great or notable cavity, situate on each side betwixt the side and upper part of the Sternon and top of the Shoulder-blade, for the strength and stability of these parts, whence they take the name of Claviculae Clavicles, (from

the Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which signifies, a Key, or any other Bar or fastning of a Door.) They carry the shape of a Surgeons Levatory.

But you must note that the Clavicles seem to be fastned to the Sternon by the mediation of a gri∣sly-bone. Moreover the space and cavity contained within the coller-bones, is called by the La∣tines jugulum, by the French the upper furcula, because the jugular-veins pass that way; it sticks to the upper process of the shoulder by a Grisle, which Galen calls the small Grisle-bone, although it be nothing else but a production of the Os juguli.

For the Sternon, which we said is framed of divers Bones, as sometimes 3, sometimes 4, 5, 6, 7, and sometimes 8; you must note, they are very spongy and full of pores, and of a far softer consi∣stence than the coller-bones, wherefore more subject to corruption; besides, they are mutually joined by interposition of muscles. Their use is to be as a shield to defend the vital parts.

The Ribs are 24 in number, on each side 12. seven of these are called true or perfect ribs, be∣cause they make a circle, at the one end joyned to the Sternon, on the other to the vertebra's; the other are called bastard, or short-ribs, because they fall short in their way, and come not to the Sternon; but they are fastned on the foreside of the Sternon by Grisles and Ligaments, but on the back-part to the transverse vertebra's of the Back-bone, and to the sides of the said vertebra's. But the short-ribs are only knit to the vertebra's, wherefore that part of the vertebra's is called the root of the ribs.

The exterior, or fore-part, of the bastard or short-ribs, is grisly, that they should not be broken, and that they might be the easier lifted up in the distensions of the Stomach filled with meat. They are of a consistence sufficiently hard, yet more towards their root, than at the Sternon, where they come nearer together, and are more hardly broken; they are smooth both within and without, but in the midst they have some sign of being double, or hollow, to receive the veins and arteries, which nourish their bony substance; they are fashioned like a bow; their use is the same with the Sternon, and besides, to carry and strengthen the muscles serving for respiration.

Notes

• What a Bone is.
• A double sense.
• Lib. 1. de Locis affectis.
• Why the bones have such small veins.
• Whence the difference of Bones may be taken.
• The Clavicles or Coller-bones.
• Lib. 13. de usu part. cap. 13.
• The Ribs.
• Their Consi∣stence.