A treatise on diseases of the bones / By Thomas M. Markoe.
- Thomas M. Markoe
- Date:
- 1872
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on diseases of the bones / By Thomas M. Markoe. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![Another form of liypertrophy of bone is tliat which affects the bones of tlie fiice, and is coniinonly spoken of as the ivory exostosis. It consists of a very dense and solid growth, which Blowly involves the bones of one side of the face, more com- monly in the neighbtjrhood of tiie orbit, and which gradually converts them into a tumor of great size, M'hich projects from the surface of the face, and which encroaches on the cavi- ties of the nose, eye, antrum, and mouth, in such a way as to produce the most serious and sometimes the most dangerous deformity. A large number of cases of this curioas form of In'pertrophy have been collected by Mr. Heath, in his admi- rable essay on the Injuries and Diseases of the Jaws. The disease is usually painless throughout its entire course, except where it inflicts pain by its encroachment, and it is unaccom- panied by any evidences of inflammatory action. It seems to affect adults of middle age, aiid is not traceable to any injury or connected with any constitutional taint. The progress of the disease is extremely slow, and presents ordinarily no other features but those of sim^de increase. This form of hyper- trophy, however, is so much allied to the tumors which atlect the bones of the face, that its more particular description may be conveniently reserved for a future chapter. Atrophy of bone most commonly presents itself as the consecpience of long - continued disuse; but several other causes sometimes produce it. Thus, Mr. Curling has shown that, in certain cases of fracture, where the injury involves the trunk of the nutritious artery, the fragment of bone which is deprived of its vascular supply from that source will some- times undergo a process of atrophy, and that in this way non- union is sometimes produced. Atrojdiy of bone is likewise seen in those cases of localized paralysis under which the whole limb wastes away, and in young children never attains its pioiH r deveU)pment. Disuse, however, may, I think, be said to be by far the most common cause of atn^phy of bone; and, inasmuch as a certain amount of diminished activity accom- panies the action of all other causes, it is difhcult to prove that any one of thom is sufHciont to ]>rodu('e the condition without the assist:ui('o of some degree of diminisheil functioTial activity. Two forms of atrophy present themselves: one in which](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21014413_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
