Treatise on diseases of the bones / by Edward Stanley.

  • Stanley, Edward, 1793-1862.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Treatise on diseases of the bones / by Edward Stanley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    bones have diminished, peculiar products have been thrown forth from them, but they were such as are characteristic of the gouty constitution*. It is a peculiar feature in the morbid history of bone, that the irrita- tion of disease, however excited in it, is so commonly followed by the action of forming osseous substance among the surrounding soft parts, some of these being more prone to this action than others ; hence, the ossification ensuing in the various structures adjacent to diseased, or in- jured, bones. Here, moreover, it may be well to regard in one view the whole series of ossifications and osseous productions arising either as distinct diseases, or as the consequence of disease in their neighbour- hood. Morbid ossifications and osseous productions may be arranged under the following heads :— 1. Unorganized masses of calcareous salts, found in various tumors, especially in the fibrous tumours of the uterus, also constituting the apparent ossifications in the coats of arteries. 2. Ossifications of original tissues, as of fibrous membrane, tendon, muscle, &c. These are, probably, but the ossifications of one tis- sue, the cellular, a component of all these structures. Fibrous membranes are remarkably prone to ossification ; one ex- ample of which, among many, is the long-enduring ulcer upon the leg, followed by ossification of the periosteum beneath the ulcer and around it, accompanied by ossification of the inter-osse- ous ligament between the tibia and fibula, often converting it into a thick plate of bone. The character of its organization is not the sole cause of the tendency of fibrous membrane to ossify. Its vital properties, and its locality in connexion with the purposes it serves, are also to be taken into account in explanation of the ex- ception that some fibrous membranes, as the muscular aponeuroses, or fasciae, very rarely ossify. So in respect to the pericranium, which in its structure is not distinguishable from the periosteum of * Chemical Composition of Concretions from Gouty Bones, Marchand, Journal f. Pract. Chemie. Oct. 1842. Urate of Soda .... 34-20 Urate of lime Carbonate of lime . Chloride of sodium Water . Animal substance . Loss 212 7.68 14-12 6-80 32-53 2-37 100-0