The fourth metacarpal bone (metacarpal bone of the ring finger) is shorter and smaller than the third.
The base is small and quadrilateral; its superior surface presents two facets, a large one medially for articulation with the hamate, and a small one laterally for the capitate.
On the radial side are two oval facets, for articulation with the third metacarpal; and on the ulnar side a single concave facet, for the fifth metacarpal.
Famous quotes containing the words fourth and/or bone:
“The British are a self-distrustful, diffident people, agreeing with alacrity that they are neither successful nor clever, and only modestly claiming that they have a keener sense of humour, more robust common sense, and greater staying power as a nation than all the rest of the world put together.”
—Quoted in Fourth Leaders from the Times (1950)
“Sang a bone upon the shore;
“A man if I but held him so
When my body was alive
Found all the pleasure that life gave”:
A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)