434 PRIMARY FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 



"(This case was related to me in full detail by the 

 father with the deformed finger, and with whom I was 

 personally acquainted. He was an eminent physician, 

 the president of a large and reputable medical college, 

 and his name is well known to the profession.) 



tl f. A woman thirty- five years of age had both 

 kneepans broken. Erysipelas and other complications 

 prevented the use of the usual surgical appliances for 

 keeping the severed parts together while healing, so 

 they never united by bony union, but became joined 

 by intervening cartilage. The hurt was peculiarly 

 painful and slow of healing, because of the complica- 

 tions alluded to, but the general health was fully re- 

 stored. For some years after healing there was a very 

 pronounced groove or furrow along the line of fracture 

 over the connecting cartilage, especially in the right 

 knee. The outer edges of the fractured bone were 

 sharp at first, but ultimately became rounded by ab- 

 sorption. Both fractures were V-shaped. The right 

 knee had the parts wider separated at the time of the 

 accident, and was again partially torn asunder three 

 and a half months later, and the furrow consequently 

 remained very much broader and deeper than in the 

 other knee. About four months (124 days) after the 

 first accident, and while still unable to walk, she gave 

 birth to a son. No abnormal appearance was noticed 

 at the time, and later was not looked for until the 

 child was ten or more years old, when he called atten- 

 tion to the matter himself. There was then a deep 

 and well-defined groove across the surface of the right 

 kneepan, very plainly perceivable through the skin. 

 It corresponded precisely in shape and position with 

 the fracture and the later furrow in the corresponding 

 bone in the mother. It was most pronounced before 



