" All her bones except her teeth were more or less affected, and scarcely any would resist the knife : those of the head, thorax, spine, and pelvis were nearly of the same degree of softness; those of the lower extremities were much more dissolved than those of the upper or of any other part; they were changed into a kind of parenchymatous substance like soft dark-coloured liver without the least offensive smell. I cut through the whole length without turning the edge of the knife, and found less resistance than firm muscular flesh would have made, meeting only here and there with bony laminw, thin as an egg-shell.
44 Those bones were most dissolved which in their natural state are most compact, and contain most marrow in their cavities. This circumstance may appear more worthy of ob servation as it held throughout, and looks as if the wonderful change they had undergone was occasioned by the marrow having acquired a dissolving quality; for it was evident the dissolution began internally by the bony laminm remaining here and there on the outside and no where else, and the pain in the beginning of the disease not being increased by external pressure." Mr. Wilson* met with three cases, of one of which he gives the dissection, which in some respects resembles the preceding. As it exhibited the symptom of fragility,—indeed the symptoms throughout were rather such as should appertain to fragilitas than mollities, for most of the bones of the skeleton had given way, some of which were imperfectly united, and many not at all,—as the bones were altered into a substance not very unlike that described by Gooch, and as the disease evidently com menced within, we subjoin an extract from the dissection, which will be sufficient without entering into the more minute details.
" All the bones were diseased. The ossa brachiorum were so soft that I very readily divided them with a common scalpel from their heads until near the condyles. Immediately at the condyles both bones were hard, and the articulating cartilages bad a natural healthy appearance ; both bones had been fractured; in one the fracture had not united, and in the other there were several fractures which had united very imperfectly. The compact sub stance of the bone was in some places not thicker than an egg-shell : the cancelli were totally destroyed, and the cavities in the mid dle of the bones were filled up with a substance which seemed to have been originally extra vasated and coagulated blood, but which had become vascular, and had much oil deposited in the cells within it. These substances ap peared to have produced absorption of part of the bone from their enlargement and internal pressure, for in some places the external surface of the bone was removed and tumours allowed to extend through the openings." In confirmation of the opinion that this disease is produced by some malignant taint in the constitution, it may be proper to add that hitherto it has baffled every mode of treatment.
It continues its progress without stop or inter ruption, and is inevitably fatal.
IVammation—osteitis.—The exact process that is carried on within an inflamed part* seems not to be satisfactorily understood, al though the subject has exercised the ingenuity and employed the research of many who have distinguished themselves in the cultivation of pathological science. If this position is true with regard to the softer and more external structures which are open to examination both by the touch and eye, it must be still more so with reference to the osseous system, the parts of which are more or less deep-seated and concealed from observation. We know, how ever, that the process of inflammation is greatly modified by the structure of the part affected, or perhaps more particularly by its vascular organization, some powerfully resisting the inroads of disease, and repairing its ravages with wonderful activity, while others exhibit as remarkable a want of energy, seem scarcely capable of a struggle, and run at once into mortification. But as the bones, besides their animal ingredients, contain an earthy material which must exert considerable influence on the phenomena, the progress, and the results of inflammation, it will be necessary to examine the subject with reference to the nature of the structure particularly affected.
A bone in its healthy condition is copiously supplied with bloodvessels4 When examined on its external surface stripped of its perios teum, it exhibits a bluish-grey colour, evidently produced by a quantity of blood contained within it. When it is cut, or when the perios teum is torn from it, a number of bloody specks are seen ; and the cancellated structure in which the marrow is lodged is always red, particularly in young subjects. By Mr. How ship's observations it appears that " the small space occupied by the bloodvessels of the canals (within the bones) compared with that which is found to be allotted to the secretions and membranes of these cavities, distinctly proves that the circulation must, under all circumstances, enjoy as much freedom here as elsewhere ; and the intimate connexion formed by these canals between all parts of the bones and the surrounding soft parts affords the strongest grounds for believing that the minute vascular and membranous organization of the bones is as susceptible of impressions from irritation or sympathy as the muscular, glandu lar, or other soft structures of the body." The bones in common with other parts are conse quently subject to inflammation with all its consequences of adhesion, suppuration, granu lation, ulceration, &c. &c., but subject to the following modifications which result from the peculiarities of structure and material compo sition indicated, and the intimate connexion just alluded to between them and the adjacent soft parts.