Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 244
| groove lodges the orbicular fibers of the capsule of the hip-joint. The posterior surface is smooth, and is broader and more concave than the anterior: the posterior part of the capsule of the hip-joint is attached to it about 1 cm. above the intertrochanteric crest. The superior border is short and thick, and ends laterally at the greater trochanter; its surface is perforated by large foramina. The inferior border, long and narrow, curves a little backward, to end at the lesser trochanter. |
The Trochanters.—The trochanters are prominent processes which afford leverage to the muscles that rotate the thigh on its axis. They are two in number, the greater and the lesser. |
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FIG. 244– Right femur. Anterior surface. (See enlarged image) |
| The Greater Trochanter (trochanter major; great trochanter) is a large, irregular, quadrilateral eminence, situated at the junction of the neck with the upper part of the body. It is directed a little lateralward and backward, and, in the adult, is about 1 cm. lower than the head. It has two surfaces and four borders. The lateral surface, quadrilateral in form, is broad, rough, convex, and marked by a diagonal impression, which extends from the postero-superior to the antero-inferior angle, and serves for the insertion of the tendon of the Glutæus medius. Above the impression is a triangular surface, sometimes rough for part of the tendon of the same muscle, sometimes smooth for the interposition of a bursa between the tendon and the bone. Below and behind the diagonal impression is a smooth, triangular surface, over which the tendon of the Glutæus maximus plays, a bursa being interposed. The medial surface, of much less extent than the lateral, presents at its base a deep depression, the trochanteric fossa (digital fossa), for the insertion of the tendon of the Obturator externus, and above and in front of this an impression for the insertion of the Obsturator |