390 INFLAMMATION. 



NECROSIS. BY C. F. W. BODECKER, OF NEW YORK.* 



The successful study of the elements of bone-tissue depends very much 

 upon the method employed. The proper examination of bone-tissue origi- 

 nated in the second, third, and fourth decade of this century, and was pursued 

 by Howship, J. Miiller, Henle, and others ; all of whom resorted to dry bone, 

 which they divided into thin slabs by the use of the saw, after which these 

 were ground thin by a variety of devices, reducing each specimen to semi- 

 transparency. Observations made in this way resulted in the theory of 

 canaliculi bearing a solution of lime-salts. In 1850 and 1853, Rodolph 

 Virchow and F. C. Bonders applied the cell doctrine of Schwann to the 

 explanation of bone-tissue. They sometimes used dry and sometimes fresh 

 bone in their investigations, macerating it in dilute hydrochloric acid, where- 

 by they liberated the elements of the structure more or less distinctly. The 

 bodies so isolated presented, sometimes, nucleated structures connected 

 together by branches ; at other times, completely isolated bodies consisting 

 of a central mass with projecting processes, and to these they gave the name 

 bone-cells. Bonders drew attention to the fact that bone-tissue had spaces 

 filled by cell-like structures similar to those of other kinds of connective 

 tissue. E. Neumann, in 1863, asserted that the so-called bone-cells were 

 not the cells designated by Schwann, but spaces with offshoots having a 

 more densely calcified wall than the other basis-substance, and thus better 

 able to withstand the re-action of solvents. These bone-cells are no other 

 than the lacunaa, and their offshoots, the canaliculi. Inasmuch as the dry 

 method of examination of bone-tissue prevailed up to the introduction of the 

 wet method, by Heinrich Miiller, in 1856, it is not surprising that it is fre- 

 quently persisted in to this day. The nearer to the living state the examina- 

 tions can be made, the more instructive and definite will the observation be. 

 Hence the dry method is fast falling into disuse among those making histo- 

 logical researches. In 1871, E. Lang introduced the examination of living 

 bone under the microscope upon the heated stage, by which he noticed 

 amoeboid motion in bone-corpuscles. By this management the lacunas were 

 proved to contain protoplasm, but the nature of the contents of canaliculi he 

 said nothing about. The method of examining bone-structure introduced by 

 H. Miiller viz., to decalcify bone by the use of a solution of chromic acid 

 is to be preferred. In this way bones are decalcified in a short time, and 

 without considerable change. For thin bones, two or three weeks are sufficient 

 to soften them enough to produce sections of any degree of thinness by the 

 .use of the razor. Such sections may be stained by placing them in a solution 

 of chloride of gold, of one-half per cent, in strength. An examination of such 

 preparations will show that, within the lacunas of the bone, nucleated bodies 

 are to be seen, with finely granular offshoots extending into the larger canal- 

 *iculi, where they are lost to sight. From the surface of the bioplassoi> body 

 in the direction of the basis-substance many conical processes protrude 

 toward the small canaliculi, with which they blend. In 1872, C. Heitzmami 

 described and illustrated a bone-corpuscle from bone in the early stage of 

 inflammation [see page 126, Fig. 40, of this book]. This figure shows very 



* Abstract from " Necrosis," by C. F. W. Bodecker, D. D. S., M. D. S., New York. 

 " Dental Cosmos," Philadelphia, 1878. In order to establish uniformity throughout the book , 

 the term " protoplasm " is changed into that of " bioplasson." 



