394 THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IN GENERAL. [ch. ii. 



very few nerves distributed to them, that they become extremely 

 painful: of this class are tendons, ligaments, and the bones, which 

 in the natural state have no sensation, but when diseased, become 

 so sensitive that a touch gives pain. Thus in a case observed 

 by Martini,^ a denuded tendon had no feeling, but being ren- 

 dered black by an ointment applied to it, it became, at the 

 same time, so sensitive, that a touch could not be borne, and 

 not without great pain could the black and dead fibre be torn 

 from the healthy. Since, then, mortification in this tendon 

 rendered its nerves so very sensitive, the same result may be 

 expected in the ligaments of the joints, when a gouty matter 

 is deposited in them. Richter is of this opinion.^ A man 

 having many schirrous tumours beneath the skin, one was 

 removed from the dorsum of the hand by Klinkosch,^ on account 

 of its hindering the movements of the fingers. The patient 

 bore the removal of the tumour tolerably well, but not the 

 denudation of the tendon, the irritation of which caused such 

 a trembling of the body generally, that he would for no 

 consideration suffer a repetition of the experiment. In this 

 case it appears, that the tendon had acquired greater sensibility 

 from disease of the superjacent skin. Plenk also asserts,* that 

 a divided tendon at first causes no bad symptoms, but when, 

 after a while, it becomes inflamed, it is then painful. Adolph 

 Murray confirms the remark,^ observing, that if healthy liga- 

 ments be pricked, wounded, or burnt, they feel no pain ; but 

 if the structure of the ligament be affected, either by fungus 

 or pus, or any other acrid humour, then incisions into them are 

 not only painful, but often cause so much suffering that it ex- 

 cites convulsions. And thus also bones, when not diseased, have 

 no sensation, although nerves are manifestly distributed here 

 and there ; and this he ingeniously explains by the hypothesis, 

 that the nerves are constricted by the accumulation of earthy 

 matter in the foramina, through which they enter the bone ; 



' Versuche und Erfahrungen iiber die Empfindlichkeit der Sehnen. Copenhagen, 

 1770. 



» Chirurg. Biblioth., Ite Band, Ite Stuck. 



3 Observ. de Sensibilitate tendinis et raro Cutis Aibrbo. It is in his * Collectio 

 Diss. Select. Med. Pragensium.' 



* Chirurg. Lehrsatze. 



^ Diss, de Sensibilitate Ossium morbosa. Upsalae, 1780. 



