Page:Structure and functions of the body; a hand-book of anatomy and physiology for nurses and others desiring a practical knowledge of the subject (IA structurefunctio00fiskrich).pdf/104

 toward the front and are by nature more freely movable in women than in men. Most of the ribs have a head divided by a little ridge into two facets for articulation with the dorsal vertebræ, a flattened neck, a tuberosity at the base of the neck with a facet for articulation with the transverse process of the vertebra below, an angle, and a shaft, which is externally convex and is grooved on its lower edge for the intercostal vessels and nerve. The first and second, eleventh and twelfth ribs, however, are somewhat peculiar, the first two being shorter, flatter and rather broader than the rest and the first having only one facet on the head, while the last two have only one facet on the head and no neck or tuberosity.

The costal cartilages serve to prolong the ribs and greatly increase the elasticity of the chest wall. They grow longer down to the seventh and then decrease again in length. The ribs, except the first and second, which are protected by the clavicle, are frequently broken. Such a break causes pain in breathing and sometimes the end of a rib pierces the lung tissue and swelling all over the body results, due to the presence of air. Caries or death of the rib is also frequent. Fracture of the sternum occurs occasionally, generally from direct force, as from a blow with the knee in foot-ball, and there may be dislocation between the manubrium and gladiolus. Muscles of the Chest.—The spaces between the ribs, from the tubercle of the rib behind to the cartilage in front, are filled by the external intercostal muscles, which pass downward and forward from the lower border of one rib to the upper border of the one below. There are, therefore, eleven pairs of these muscles. There are also eleven pairs of the internal intercostals, which commence at the sternum and extend back to the angle of the rib. These extend downward and backward. The external intercostals raise and evert the ribs in inspiration, the internal depress and invert them in expiration. The chief respiratory muscle, however, is the dia-*