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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![bone through some local impression, or occurs in several, as the result of a general disposition to inflammatory enlarge- ment in the osseous system. In the former case, it commonly follows a blow, or ex- posure to cold : it frequently begins with periostitis, and is seldom unattended with more or less necrosis. In the latter case, the afi^ection seldom alters its original character, but remains from first to last a greater or less enlargement of bone, with more or less pain and weight of the limb affected; sometimes continuing a few weeks only, in other instances enduring for months and years, its course in general b^ing steady, and without fluctuation; the attack coming on slowly, progressing slowly, receding slowly, and being un- attended with affections of other organs. A patient under thirty years of age, in whom the whole of the tibia, radius, and part of the os humeri, had been thus affected for many months, died in the Middlesex Hospital of erysipelas. The enlarged bones were perfectly dense throughout, [d. 27.] Another patient, about the same age, had a considerable enlargement of one tibia, and a smaller swelling of the other: he happened to have broken the ulna some weeks before his admission. What had principally alarmed him was a sudden enlargement at the point where the broken bone had united : an elastic tumour had very suddenly appeared there about the size of a walnut. This patient had no sore throat or spots upon the skin ; but was of a pale com- plexion, and out of health. He recovered in a few weeks, upon taking sarsaparilla with the oxymuriate of mercury, and living on a regulated diet, and in the equal temperature of an hospital ward. A lad was in the Middlesex Hospital with painful en- largement of the lower end of the shaft of the femur. He recovered after some months, having derived evident benefit from caustic issues. The tibia is more frequently inflamed than any other bone in the frame. Its dependent situation, which is op- posed to the free return of the blood,—the extent of its sub- cutaneous surface, which renders it obnoxious to changes](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21066735_0060.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
