68*2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1743. 



An Abstract of some new Observations on Insects. By M. Charles Bonnet of 



Geneva. N° 470, p. 458. 



[P'or the observations contained in this long paper, tlie reader is referred to 

 Mr. Bonnet's Treatise, entitled Insectologie, published a year or two afterwards.] 



An extraordinary Case of the Bones of a Woman becoming soft and flexible. By 

 Mr. Sylvanus Bevan, F. R. S. N° 470, p. 488. 



The wife of one B. S., in the year 1738, was taken with a diabetes, with the 

 usual symptoms, viz. a frequent and copious discharge by urine, a gradual wast- 

 ing of the body, a iiectic fever, with a quick low pulse, thirst, great pains in 

 her shoulders, back, and limbs, and loss of appetite. She continued thus two 

 years, much emaciated, though using the common medicines ; at which time 

 «he was attacked with an intermittent, which soon left her ; after which the 

 diabetes gradually decreased, so that in a few months she was free from that 

 disorder, but the pains in her limbs still continued. She recovered her appetite, 

 breathed freely, and her hectic much lessened, though she had some appearance 

 of it at times. 



About 18 months since she had such a weakness and pains in her limbs, that 

 it confined her to her bed altogether; and in a few months the bones in her legs 

 and arms felt somewhat soft to the touch, and were so pliable, that they were 

 bent into a curve; but, for several months before her death, they were as limber 

 as a rag, and would bend any way, with less difficulty than the muscular parts 

 of a healthy person's leg, without the interposition of the bones. 



April 12, 1742, after a tedious illness, she died, near the age of 40: and, 

 with the consent of her friends, Mr. B. had the curiosity to examine more 

 particularly into the several matters beforementioned. On raising the cutis, he 

 found the membra adiposa much thicker than he expected in a person so much 

 emaciated : the sternum and ribs, with their cartilages, were very soft ; and all 

 the cartilaginous parts of the ribs, at their articulations, from the clavicle down- 

 wards, were doubled over each other on the left side, about an inch, in this 



form ___,^ "^^ , only flatter. On raising the sternum, he found the lungs 



adhered very close to the ribs, for 4 or 5 inches on each side ; but were more 

 loose and flaccid than usual, and much less in size : her heart was of the com- 

 mon size. Upon viewing the liver, he found it at least a third part larger than 

 common ; and the spleen was about 1-i- inch in the longest part, and ^ thick : 

 the intestines were very much inflated. 



She had appearances of several anchylosseses formed in the small joints, viz. 

 carpal and metacarpal bones ; but on laying them open, he found them only 

 like a thin shell : the cartilaginous epiphyses of the bones were entirely dis- 



