Outlines of human osteology / by F.O. Ward.

Frederick Oldfield Ward

Date:: 1876

Credit: Outlines of human osteology / by F.O. Ward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

19/392 page 3

$ins chiefly of tribasic phosphate of lime and magnesia, and of common chalk, with small percentages of tiuoride of calcium, chloride of sodium, sulphate salts and silica. These mineral ingredients do not form granu- lar deposits \-isible to the eye, but are diffused as an impalpable tine powder throughout the bony tissue. W e do not j'et know whether the nature of the com- bination be 'of a chemical or physical uatui-e; though experiment has shown that we may withdraw, at will, either the ossein of bones, leaving the mineral componnds intact, or, conversely, wash out the mineral constituents, leaving the ossein behind. In both experiments the mate- rial left preserves the original form of the bone, but with a ver\- diti'erent effect in each case. When the ossein is removed, the mineral iagredients are left, robbed of all toughness and entirely inelastic and brittle; whereas, conversely, when the earthy compounds are washed away, the ossein remains, tenacious and flexible in every sense, but having very little resistance to the blade of a cutting instrument. For removing ossein, ebullition with plain water suffices ; the effect being first to convert the msoluble ossein into soluble gelatin, which is washed out; while dilute solutions of acids decompose the chalk and drive out its carbonic acid, and dissolve its lime; and also remove two-thirds of the basic ingredients of the tri- basic phosphates, and thus leave soluble monobasic phos- phate.s, wfuch are taken up by the water and carried away. 6. The interior structure of the bones, as displayed by their mechanical section, shows, in different bones and in different parts of the same bone, very different degrees of suhstantiality; some parts, solid and thick, being called eiym^ad, while others are of reticular or spongy disposi- tion, full of small cavities, and designated cellalar. These two forms of bone-structure are shown in con- spicuous contrast in the upper end of the femur, when cut through the head, neck, and great trochanter, and down along the shaft; and this shaft is a cylindroid hollow, enclosed by a thick wall of compact bone, of oval contour; and this wall, as it ascends, spreads in trumpet-mouth fashion, and thins off to a mere lamina of paper-like tenuity, which encloses the articular sur- face of the head, and covers the back of the great trochanter. From the inner side of the shaft and trochanter, the neck of the femur stands, strongly rooted, in the trochanter above, and the expanding$

Outlines of human osteology / by F.O. Ward.

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