PELVIS. 



191 



cliploe was obliterated, the Haversian canals 

 enormously enlarged, and the osseous cor- 

 puscles (lacuna?) diminished in quantity. From 

 an analysis made by Dr. Leeson, the fresh 

 bone contained, in 100 parts ; animal matter, 

 18'75; water, 52 - OS ; phosphate and car- 

 bonate of lime, 29' 17 parts. The grumous 

 medullary matter contained, in 100 parts ; 

 animal matter, 2-i'78 ; water, 73'39; and 

 phosphate and carbonate of lime, l'S3 parts. 

 Under the microscope, Rainey found many 

 granular, roundish bodies, about the size of 

 blood corpuscles, and some fat globules ; 

 Simon, in a different part, could find no new 

 or mature cell formations, but plenty of cyto- 

 blasts, and a few young fat cells. 



Mr. Curling considers the softening of mol- 

 litics ossium to be eccentric ; i. e., to commence 

 in the centre of the bone, and pass outwards, 

 affecting first the denser parts, and then the 

 areolar extremities of the bone. He looks 

 upon it as the result of defective nutrition, 

 and that both the constituents waste in nearly 

 equal ratio throughout. This author remarks 

 that the pains always precede fracture or dis- 

 tortion, and are not the result of these condi- 

 tions. In one case, he observed copious 

 sweats and salivation ; in another, a foetid 

 unctuous exudation from the hands and feet ; 

 in a third, foetid perspiration ; in a fourth 

 case, that of an old woman of seventy, who 

 had been bedridden for four years from para- 

 plegin, there were no deposits in the urine. 

 The pelvic bones might be cut with a knife, 

 but the ribs and vertebras were less affected. 

 The enlarged cavities and areolae were filled 

 with red patches, resulting from injected 

 vessels, anil an oily medulla.* 



Rokitansky gives as a characteristic of one 

 form of mollities ossium (to which he applies 

 the names of'osteo-matac/iia" or " rhachilismus 

 adiiltorum"), that it affects principally the bones 

 of the trunk, those of the extremities being 

 affected in a subordinate degree ; that it occurs 

 especially in childbed women, and is often 

 associated with cancer of the internal organs. 

 This eminent pathologist also states that, in 

 this disease, the bony corpuscles (lacuncE) 

 are found empty, and without canaliculi ; that 

 the lamellar structure is also lost, and the 

 structure satured with fat. The extract ob- 

 tained by boiling differs, both from chon- 

 drine and from the normal animal matter of 

 bone, a circumstance which he considers to lie 

 the most remarkable characteristic of the 

 disease. He states further, that this form of the 

 disease is painful, malignant, and has never 

 been cured. In some cases, the muscles were 

 in a state of fatty degeneration. 



Mr. Dalrymple concludes, from microsco- 

 pical observations of one variety of mollities 

 ossium, that it was a simple fungoid, malignant 

 condition of bone. He found the areolar 

 spaces enlarged by the absorption of their 

 partitions, and great increase in the vascu- 

 larity of the lining membrane. The "lacunae" 

 were also enlarged, and the "canaliculi" con- 



* Mod. Ckir. Trans, vol. xx. p. 3GO. 



siderably shortened, in the parts most affected. 

 The red, grumous matter contained in the 

 cavities, exhibited a large quantity of blood 

 corpuscles, together with numerous nucleated 

 and nuclear cells, with many cytoblasts, and 

 some few caudate cells. Many oil globules 

 and fat cells were also present. He con- 

 siders the disease to differ from malignant 

 osteo-sarcoma, in there being no deposit of 

 new bone, and that the caudate cells, instead 

 of increasing, become disintegrated, resolved 

 into granular matter and oil globules, and 

 finally dissolved.* 



Professor Paget considers, that there are 

 two kinds of mollities ossium, in one of which 

 he places the Rhachitismus adultorum, described 

 by Rokitansky, as well as that just quoted 

 from Mr. Dalrymple, where the bones are re- 

 duced to a soft, flexible and cartilaginous con- 

 dition simply. In the other variety, which he 

 considers to result, like fragifitas ossium, 

 from fatty degeneration of bone, he would 

 place all the cases which have occurred in this 

 country, including that of Mr. Solly's before 

 described. Of the former variety, this patho- 

 logist has never seen a specimen, and he does 

 not, apparently, consider it either a malignant 

 or a frequent condition of the bones. His 

 observations have led him to conclude that 

 the grumous contents of the bony cylinder in 

 this disease, of whatever hue yellow, pink, 

 crimson or dark red are composed of dis- 

 guised fat. In part of a femur presented to 

 the Hunterian Museum by Mr. Tamplin, he 

 found free oil globules in large quantity, fat 

 cells filled with oil, or empty, collapsed, and 

 rolled up, and crystals of margarine contained 

 in or without the fat cell". The colour, which 

 was yellow, pink and crimson, was owing to 

 the hue of the oil globules, nuclei and granules 

 of the collapsed fat cells. There was no 

 excess of blood corpuscles whatever. In a 

 portion of a femur presented by Mr. How- 

 ship, there was left, after boiling, only a 

 small quantity of white crystalline matter.")" 



John Hunter remarked, in a case of mol- 

 lities ossium, described by Goodwin in the 

 Med. Observ. and Inquiries, that the bony 

 structures were spongy, deprived of their 

 earthy matter, and so soaked in soft fat as to 

 resemble a fatty tumour. 



In the pelvic bones of a female past the 

 middle age, affected with the rostrated variety 

 of angular deformity, I found, on making 

 sections, a large quantity of a yellowish fatty 

 matter contained in the areolar structure. 

 This was particularly the case, also, in the 

 head and neck of the femur, which even after 

 long maceration, had entirely a smooth and 

 greasy section. On applying heat to various 

 portions of these bones, in order to ascertain 

 the proportion of earthy constituents, they 

 ignited and burnt with a copious blueish, fatty 

 flame, with much smoke, and continued to 

 burn freely till all the f;itty matter was ex- 

 hausted. The bones, which were very light, 



* Dull. Jour. vol. ii. 



+ Lectures on Nutrition, Mod. Gaz., 1817, p. 234. 



