430 



BONE, NORMAL ANATOMY. 



there are instances in which principles not 

 usually met with in the healthy circulation may 

 be detected in it, and others where those which 

 are always present in a state of health do nearly 

 if not altogether disappear. But that which 

 still remains unknown, and to which it is of 

 the highest interest and importance that our 

 investigations should be directed, is the con- 

 nexion that these morbid changes have with the 

 diseases which they accompany ; the position 

 which they occupy in the relation between cause 

 and effect. Perhaps our present information 

 is not sufficiently minute to give fair expecta- 

 tions of any considerable advances being made 

 in this line of inquiry ; for when we contemplate 

 the variety of materials for the formation and 

 removal of morbid as well as of healthy secre- 

 tions and structures, which are stealing unper- 

 ceived along the vital current, we are forced to 

 confess how small is the sum of all we know 

 compared with that of which we are still igno- 

 rant, and how ample is the harvest which yet 

 remains to be gathered by future labourers in 

 this field of research. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. (The following comprehends the 

 most esteemed writings on the blood in its healthy as 

 well as its morbid states.) R. Boyle, Mem. for a 

 nat. hist, of human blood, 8vo. Lund. 1684, and 

 Analytical observ. on milk found in veins instead 

 of blood, Phil. Trans. 1665. Albinus, De Mass 

 Sanguinis corpusculis, 4to. 1688 (Recus. in Bailor 

 Disp. Anat. t. ii.) ; Ejus, De Pravitate Sanguinis, 

 4to. Franc. 1689. De Sandra, De naturali et praeter- 

 naturali sanguinis statu, 4to. Bon. 1696. De Haen, 

 De sanguine humana, in Ej. Ratione medendi. 

 N. Davies, Exper. to promote the analysis of the 

 blood, 8vo. Lond. 1760. Fontana, Nuove osserv. 

 sopra i globetti rossi del sangae, 8vo. Lucca, 1768. 

 Hcwson, Exper. inquiry into the properties of the 

 blood, 8vo. Lend. 1771-78. Spallanzani, Fenomeni 

 della circolazione, 8vo. Moden. 1773 : Anglice by 

 Hall, Lond. 1801. Holler, El. Physiol. t. ii. 

 Bordeu, Analyse Med. du sang, Par. 1771. Thou- 

 vetiel, Mem. sur le mechanisme et les produits de la 

 sanguification, Mem. de 1'Acad* de St. Petersbourg, 

 an. 1776. Delia Torre, Oss. microscopiche, 4to. 

 Neap. 1776. Hey, Observations on the blood, 8vo. 

 Lond. 1779. Blumenbach, De vi vitali sanguinis 

 deneganda, 4to. Gotting. 1788. Deyeux fy Par- 

 mentier, Mem. sur les alterations du sang, 4to. Par. 

 1797. Hunter on the blood, &c. 1794. Wells on 

 the colour of the blood, Phil. Trans. 1797. Kreysig, 

 De sanguine vita destitute, Prag. 4to. 1798. Tollard, 

 Diss. sur la fibrine, 4to. Strasb. 1803. Le Gallois, 

 Le sang est il identique dans tous les vaisseaux, 

 8vo. Par. 1805. Henke, Uber die vitalit'at des 

 Blutes, 8vo. Berl. 1806. Bostock, Med.-Chir. Trans, 

 vol. i. Dowler on the products of inflammation, Mt d. 

 Chir. Trans, vol. xii. Thachrah on the properties 

 of the blood, 8vo. Lond. 1819. Wilson> Lecture* 

 on the blood, &c. Lond. 1819. Kolk, Sanguinis 

 cnagulantis historia, &c. Diss. Inaug. Groning. 

 1820. Cotte, Sur les diff. caracteres du sang dans 

 Tetat de sante et de maladie, 8vo. Aix, 1821. Davy 

 on the buffy coat, Phil. Trans. 1822. Krimer, 

 Versuch einer Physiol. des Blutes, 8vo. Leipz. 1823. 

 Stoker, in Pathological Observations, Dublin, 1823. 

 Scudamore, Essay on the blood, Lond. 1824. Mi- 

 chaelis, De partitms constitutivis sing, partium sang, 

 art. et ven. 8vo. Berol. 1827. Babinyton on fatty 

 matter in the blood, Med.-Chir. Trans, vol. xvi. 

 Christison in Ed. Med. and Surg. Journal, No. ciii. 

 Velpeau, Recherches sur les alterations du sang, 

 8vo. Par. 1826. Trousseaux, in Arch. Gen. de 

 Med. t. xiv. Sec/alas, in ibid, t. xii. Gendrin, 

 Recherches sur les fievres, and Hist. anat. des 

 inflammations. Andral, Pathological anatomy, 



by Townsend. Denis, Rech. exper. sur le sang 

 hum. 1830. Stevens on the blood, 8vo. Lond. 1832. 

 O'S/iaughnessy, Report on the chemical pathology 

 of cholera, Lond. 1832. Prevost Of Dumas, Examen 

 du sang, &c. Bibliotheq. Univ. de Genev. t. xvii. 

 See also Rudolphi, Blumenbach, Sprengel, Adelon, 

 &c. in their systems of physiology. 



( B. G. Babington.) 



BONE,(general anatomy in the normal state.) 

 Gr. oa-reov. Lat. os. Fr. os. Germ. derKnochen. 

 Ital. osso. The important offices fulfilled by 

 bone in the animal economy, and its almost 

 imperishable nature, could not but give it im- 

 portance in the eyes of the philosopher ; whilst 

 every language bears testimony to the high 

 place it holds in popular estimation. We see 

 it forming a framework to give shape and sup- 

 port to the body, cases and cages to protect 

 the more delicate organs, levers by which loco- 

 motion is performed and force exerted. Again, 

 we find it, among the tombs, successfully resist- 

 ing those destructive agents which a century 

 before reduced the softer portions of the body 

 to dust; and we speak of laying our bones in 

 the grave as if they constituted the essential 

 element of our frame. 



We propose to treat of the general anatomy 

 of bone under the following heads, viz. 1. its 

 physical properties and intimate structure in 

 man : 2. its periosteum and medulla, and its 

 organization as a part of the living system : 3. 

 its chemical composition : 4. its peculiarities 

 in other animals. 



I. The physical properties and intimate 

 structure of bone in man. The most remark- 

 able property in bone, and that which first 

 arrests attention, is its extreme hardness com- 

 pared with other parts of the system. It is, 

 indeed, the only substance in the body which 

 deserves to be called hard ; all others are more 

 or less soft, and are consequently destitute of 

 that resistance and firmness by which bones 

 are so admirably adapted for the offices they 

 have to fulfil in the animal machine. The 

 hardness usually increases with age. It varies 

 a little in different situations, and depends, as 

 we shall see, on the earthy matter which enters 

 largely into the composition of the bones. 



The colour of bone in the living person is 

 a pale-rose colour, inclining, in early life to 

 red, in old age to a yellowish white. Bones 

 assume a beautiful white when macerated and 

 deprived of the oily and sanguineous fluids 

 which pervade them. The specific gravity of 

 fresh bone is greater than that of any other 

 animal substance. Bone is opaque or only 

 slightly diaphanous. Bones are flexible and 

 elastic. We find that the ribs may be bent 

 and afterwards recover their form perfectly; 

 every schoolboy, indeed, knows the value of 

 a horse's rib as a bow. This elasticity frequently 

 saves them from fractures, and lessens the shock 

 which would otherwise be communicated 

 to the nervous centres and delicate structures 

 they defend. It is possessed by every bone, 

 and may be demonstrated in the oldest and 

 most rigid by cutting them into thin slices. 



Shape. Bones assume every variety of shape, 

 as might be expected from the use made of 



