The flat bones have in general, but little relation to locomotion,
which they only assist by the insertion of the muscles that go to the
long bones. Nature designs them especially to form the cavities, such
as those of the cranium and the pelvis. Their conformation renders them
very proper for this use. Their number varies according to the cavities
with which they are connected; many always unite to form one, and it
is this circumstance that contributes in part to their solidity. In
fact, external blows losing their force at the place of their junction,
fracture them with less ease. If the cranium was only one single
piece, its solutions of continuity would be much more frequent than
they now are. So that as the sutures ossify in old age, they become
more brittle. In children, in whom the ossification is not complete,
and the number of whose separate, osseous pieces is consequently more
considerable in the head, the pelvis, &c. the difficulty of fractures
is very great, because the soft bands which unite the solid parts yield
to external bodies, without breaking.
The flat bones are almost all curved, concave and convex on the
opposite sides; this arises from their destination in the formation of
cavities. Their curve varies according to the place in the cavity they
occupy; this curve is the cause of a very powerful resistance, when
that mentioned above does not exist. Thus in the first age, the cranium
resists by yielding; but as the sutures become more closed, and only
one osseous piece is formed, it is by the mechanism of the arch that
the brain is protected.
All the flat bones have two surfaces and a circumference. According
as the first serve for muscular insertions, or are only covered by
aponeuroses, membranes, &c. they are rough or smooth. Towards the
middle the bone is thinner; it has more thickness at the circumference,
which is either for articulation or insertion. In the first case, this
excess of thickness gives more solidity to the joints, which are then
made with larger surfaces, as we see in the cranium; in the second, it
presents to the fibres more points of origin, as we see on the crista
of the ilium and the greater part of its circumference.
The internal forms of the flat bones have but few peculiarities; their
two external layers leave between them a space which is filled by the
texture of the cells.