LAWS OF BONE ARCHITECTURE 185 



Bigelow (75), Rauber (76), Messerer ('80), von Meyer ('82), 

 Humphry ('88), Lauenstein ('90) and Wolff ('91, '92, '96, '99, 

 '00). 



Bardeleben in 1874 published a very careful and detailed study 

 of the vertebral column which is admirably illustrated. Rauber 

 (76) published his investigation of the elastic properties and 

 the strength of bone as determined by the testing of slabs and 

 prisms cut from various human bones. In 1880 appeared Mes- 

 serer's elaborate work on the strength of all the important bones 

 of the body as determined by testing to destruction the entire 

 bone. The work of Messerer is in close agreement, however, 

 with Rauber's work, and both constitute a complete demon- 

 stration of the mechanical properties of bone as an elastic 

 material. 



In 1892 appeared Wolff's classic on the law of bone transfor- 

 mation, in which he developed in final form his theory of the 

 functional form of bone and the transformation of bone in nor- 

 mal and pathological cases, and discussed in considerable de- 

 tail the structural changes in bone due to changed static con- 

 ditions. This work is abimdantly illustrated with examples of 

 many rare deformities, taken from the principal museum col- 

 lections of Germany. Culmann's mathematical analysis of the 

 lines of stress in the Fairbairn crane, and the somewhat anal- 

 ogous position of the trabeculae in the upper femur are cited by 

 Wolff as mathematical proofs that the inner architecture of 

 bone follows exact mathematical laws, and that the form and 

 inner structure of bone is determined by the static conditions 

 present in normal and pathological cases. This is supplemented 

 by a detailed discussion of the museum specimens illustrating 

 various deformities. 



Wolff's doctrine of the functional form of bone and the func- 

 tional pathogenesis of deformity have been vigorously assailed 

 on various grounds by many investigators, among whom may 

 be mentioned Zschokke ('92), Lorenz ('93), Ghillini ('98), Schede 

 ('92), Korteweg and Ritter ('88). Zschokke insisted that the 

 inner architecture of bone is designed for resisting onh^ com- 

 pressive stresses. Ritter presents the novel theory that the 



