Short bones are spongy throughout. They are used for strength and where little motion is required.
Flat bones are composed of two thin layers of compact tissue with a varying amount of cancellous tissue between, and are for protection and muscular attachment. The cancellous material between the two layers or tablets of the skull is called the diploë.
Eminences and depressions occur on bones and when they are not articular are for the attachment of ligaments and muscles. If they are articular, they help to form joints.
As a whole the bony framework serves to keep the soft parts in place, to support and protect them, and to aid in locomotion. The bones of the head and trunk support and protect organs; those of the arms are for tact and prehension; those of the lower extremities are for support and locomotion.
Normally bones have little sensibility, but when inflamed they are extremely sensitive and painful.
Joints.—The bones are connected with and move upon one another by means of joints. These joints are of three kinds: 1. Immovable, where the adjacent margins of the bones are closely applied, with little fibrous tissue between, as in the sutures of the head; 2. those with limited motion, which are very strong, the parts being connected with tough fibro-cartilage; and 3. freely movable. In this last group the articulating surfaces are covered with cartilage, which again is lined with a delicate synovial membrane which secretes a small amount of lubricating fluid, the synovial fluid, to reduce friction. Their surfaces are also sometimes deepened by the presence of interarticular fibro-cartilages. Bursæ or sacs of synovial membrane occur outside the joints under tendons and ligaments to reduce friction.
The nature and extent of the motion of a joint is defined and the bones are held together by strong bands of fibrous tissue or ligaments, these ligaments being more fully developed in joints where there is great freedom of
