MUCOUS SOFTENING. 



35 



jind that no peculiarity in the process of disintegration can be 

 observed. In one case only, that of the atrophic disease of bone 

 long known as Osteomalacia, do we find the solution of the 

 earthy salts separated by a comparatively long interval of time 

 from the liquefaction of the ossein (bone-cartilage). 



Mollities ossium : splinter from the spongy substance of 

 a rib affected with the disease, a. Normal bone tissue ; 

 h. Decalcified bone tissue ; c. Haversian canals ; d. Medul- 

 lary spaces ; d*. A medullary space filled with red marrow : 

 the lumina of the capillary vessels are gaping, -j^y. 



In mollities ossium, therefore, we are able to demonstrate in 

 'cach trabecula of spongy tissue, or of compact tissue which has 

 become spongy, a broad zone of decalcified ossein surrounding 

 the hitherto unaltered bone tissue on all sides. The ossein, which 

 is now the immediate subject of the liquefactive process, exhibits 

 a striation parallel to the lamellas : and this striation must be 

 regarded as analogous to the parallel dark lines which we 

 described in the matrix of softening cartilage. That the 

 striation is a sign of incipient fibrillation in this as in the 

 former case, we gather from the evidence of cases in which 

 the bone tissue wastes and disappears under the pressure of 

 tumours growing in its immediate neighbourhood. If we 

 examine the bone in the vicinity of such a tumour, bj 



