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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![atttr it lias been fully developed, presents niicroseopical char- acters wliicli have now been pretty thorouirhly invcstijrated. To the unaided eye, the bone is of distinctly jjinkish or ruddy hue, usually in patches of irreg^ular extent and shape, and dif- fei-iiii; anioii^ themselves in dcj)th of color. The compact tissue, as well as the 8j)on<;y, shows this intiammatorv redness, though, of course, in a less degree, and, when thus reddened by inflam- mation, has usually lost some of its apparent density. The })eriosteum and the medulla usually ]jarticipate, in a marked degree, in this vascular change, as they do in all the morbid actions of bone. Indeed, writers are generally agreed that they are both of them intrinsic parts of bone, and that the study of their diseases cannot be and ought not to be dissociated from the diseases of the bone-tissue itself. Sometimes, it is true, the inflammatory actions are mainly confined to the ]>eriosteum, and more rar<?ly to the medulla, but the neighbor- ing bone is always more or less implicated, and must necessa- rily be so, because its vessels are derived from, and form part of, the circulation of the membranes by wliich it is covered. After tlie inflammation has existed for some time, the bone begins to be eidarged, showing the addition of new bony mat- ter to its orij^inal substance. This enlarijement shows itself in two principal ways: first, by increase of size, and, secondly, by increase of density—two conditions which, though usually associated, are not by any means constantly so; and hence, among the numerous s])ecimens of inflamed bone which encum- ber every j^athological museum, we find some which are merely enlarged, in all their dimensions, about the seat of inflamma- tion, without any manifest consolidation of tissue, and others where the bulk has not undergone any marked change, while the increased weight and solidity show that abundant inter- stitial deposit has been taking place. Under the microscoiw the fii*st noticeable feature is the en- largcnjcnt of the Haversian canals. This takes place in obedi- ence to the re(piirements of the increasing vessels, for in a con- dition of healtli the canal is so nearly filled by the vessel which traverses it, that little or no enlai'gement of the latter can take place without some yielding of the lormor. So true is this, that it i< believed by most pathologists that this imp«.>ssibility, in](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21014413_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
