Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Outlines of human pathology / by Herbert Mayo. 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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![tural state ; but the body of one of the vertebrae was super- ficially ulcerated, for about the extent of a sixpence, on one side, towards the posterior part. A large abscess commu- nicated with this ulceration, and occupied the situation of the psoas muscle of the left side, extending downwards to the groin. ** On examining the body of a man, eetat. forty-five, the cancellous structure of all the dorsal and lumbar vertebrae was found of a dark red colour, and softer than natural, so that they might be cut with a common scalpel, or even crushed by the pressure of the thumb and fingers. The opposite surfaces of the bodies of the second and third lum- bar vertebrae, and of the cartilage between them, at the posterior part, were extensively destroyed by ulceration. Anteriorly, the bones and the intervertebral cartilages were entire, and the latter was in a perfectly natural state; but the bones throughout were of a dark and almost black colour. In the preceding dissections, as in all other instances of advanced spinal disease, the prominent features and dif- ferences are found in the situation and extent of the ulce- rative action : in these, as in all others, I believe evidence may be distinctly traced of primary inflammatory action, [g. 45. g. 46. g. 64. g. Qb.] The features of spinal disease are the obvious and neces- sary consequences of the morbid changes which have been described. The vertebral column, attacked with inflammation of the bones or fibro-cartilages, or both, becomes, at the part dis- eased, weak and painful. The bodies of the vertebrae or the intervertebral substance being partially absorbed, there is loss of substance in the front of the vertebral column, which causes it to bend for- wards, giving an unnatural projection to the spinous processes. The vertebral column, being weakened by absorption of one or other of its constituents, is liable, on any accidental violence, to give way suddenly, or to become suddenly bent at the ulcerated part. In the majority of instances, how- ever, the curvature takes place very gradually. The spinal marrow, being either compressed by the flexure F 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21066735_0103.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
