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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![d. Sometimes in middle life, without any assignable cause, the bones are unusually brittle. A stout-looking man was a patient in the Middlesex Hospital, with some trifling ailment. He was cutting a slice of bread, when the humerus broke. The bone united as readily as another bone: and this is observed in general of atrophied bones, except in extreme cases, or where a malignant growth ex- ists in addition in the bone; or where the system is scor- butic, or tainted with lues or mercury. e. In persons affected with carcinoma of the breast, the ribs are commonly found atrophied, so that they admit of being cut with a knife. The cortex is thin; and the osseous plates and threads of the cancelli are thinner and fewer than natural. The cells contain a reddish-brown and slightly gelatinous fluid. The bones of the extremities are likewise often unusually brittle. Sometimes, but very rarely, carcinomatous tumours are found in these brittle bones, [d. 74.] f. No definite line can be drawn between common atrophy of the bones of children [6], and rickets, or rachitis. Every intermediate condition is met with, between the degree of weakness described under the above head, and the worst cases of rachitic deformity. Rickets is a softening of the bones, which commonly shows itself in early childhood, but may make its appearance at any time before puberty. In the worst cases, the spine becomes curved in various direc- tions; the sternum projected; the ribs depressed and twisted; the sacrum pressed towards the pubes; the clavicles become more bent and prominent forward; the os humeri is dis- torted outwards; the lower ends of the radius and ulna are twisted in the same direction; the thighs are curved for- wards or outwards; the knees fall inwards ; the spine of the tibia becomes convex, and the feet are thrown out- wards ; that is to say, the trunk and limbs become bent in directions determined by the action of the muscles, and by the weight and pressure which they have to sustain. The state of the bones, which renders them thus flexible, is the following: — The cortex is thinner than usual, and more porous; and the bony cancelli have disappeared. The bones](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21066735_0054.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
