# What is the lacrimal bone?

Gray’s Anatomy (1918) describes the lacrimal bone as follows: The lacrimal bone, the smallest and most fragile bone of the face, is situated at the front part of the medial wall of the orbit .

## What it means

- The lacrimal bone, the smallest and most fragile bone of the face, is situated at the front part of the medial wall of the orbit . It has two surfaces and four borders. Surfaces. —The lateral or orbital surface is divided by a vertical ridge, the posterior lacrimal crest, into two parts. In front of this crest is a longitudinal groove, the lacrimal sulcus ( sulcus lacrimalis ), the inner margin of which unites with the frontal process of the maxilla, and the lacrimal fossa is thus completed.
- The upper part of this fossa lodges the lacrimal sac, the lower part, the naso-lacrimal duct. The portion behind the crest is smooth, and forms part of the medial wall of the orbit.
- The crest, with a part of the orbital surface immediately behind it, gives origin to the lacrimal part of the Orbicularis oculi and ends below in a small, hook-like projection, the lacrimal hamulus, which articulates with the lacrimal tubercle of the maxilla, and completes the upper orifice of the lacrimal canal; it sometimes exists as a separate piece, and is then called the lesser lacrimal bone.
- The medial or nasal surface presents a longitudinal furrow, corresponding to the crest on the lateral surface. The area in front of this furrow forms part of the middle meatus of the nose; that behind it articulates with the ethmoid, and completes some of the anterior ethmoidal cells.

## Sources

- [Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body (1918)](https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/anatomy-of-the-human-body/5b-3-the-lacrimal-bone/)

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