Page:Medical jurisprudence (IA medicaljurisprud03pari).pdf/91

 the form and properties of the individual parts. The bones of the female are generally smaller, more delicate, and the muscular impressions, and asperities are less distinctly marked on them. The articulations are smaller, and the shaft or body of each cylindrical bone is more slender in comparison with the articular ends; the frontal sinuses are smaller, and the superciliary arches less prominent; all the bones of the face are more slender; the figure of the alveolar circle is more elliptical in both jaws; whereas in the male it is more circular. The differences, however, are in many cases very equivocal, since they may occur in the male as well as in the female skeleton; in the former, where the individual has had a feeble constitution, and never used active exercise; while in the latter, hard labour will frequently confer upon her bony structure the masculine contour which we have described as generally belonging to the male skeleton. The only decisive marks, therefore, by which a female skeleton can at once be distinguished, are to be found in the structure of the pelvis, and arise from the obvious cause of the female possessing a proper frame to become a mother. The pelvis of a female, at and below the linea innominata, formed by the lower part of the inside of the ileum, and ridge of the pubes, is much more capacious, from side to side, than in the male. The entrance or brim of the cavity is also more oval, the greatest diameter being from side to side. In the male it is more triangular, and the greatest diameter at the brim is from the fore to the back part; there is not much difference in the breadth of a male and female pelvis, belonging to individuals of nearly the same height, if measured from the anterior part of the spine of the ileum to the corres