Muscle Action and the Shape of the Femur

This study was promoted by the investigation over a period of fifteen years of the growth of a child stricken by extensive poliomyelitis of both legs. The changes in shape of the femora, together with the dislocation of one hip in this child, and observations on other patients developing such deformities, stimulated interest in the factors controlling the shape of long bones. The clinical observations are largely concerned with deformities of the upper end of the femur and subluxation of the hip seen to develop in patients under treatment. The experiments which these observations suggested are mostly concerned with the part which muscular imbalance may play in producing such deformities.