YOL. XLVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 315 



that gives the bones their solidity and liardness, which had been dissolved by the 

 same vitiated quality of the fluids, and evacuated by the emunctories already 

 mentioned. 



After great sufferings, she died the Qth of November. Her body was opened 

 in the presence of some of the most celebrated anatomists and academicians of 

 Paris. The operation was begun on the left tibia, cutting on the fore part of it, 

 from below the knee to its basis. It was wonderfully altered ; more or less soft 

 in all its length ; in some points entirely dissolved, and its sides not thicker than 

 the gristle of the ear. The spongy substance of its extremities supple, yielding 

 to the least pressure. The reticular matter was quite destroyed. The perone 

 was entirely dissolved in the middle, and only slight marks of its extremities re- 

 mained. Instead of marrow, they found in all the bones a red thick matter, 

 like coagulated blood mixed with grease. The rotula was entire, but very soft 

 and spong)' ; the condyles of the femur the same. All the cartilages were found 

 in their natural state. The head of the humerus was much diminished and 

 flattened ; its middle part very small, pliable softened in all points, yet in some 

 friable. The cubit and radius suffered the same alterations with the humerus. 

 By stretching all her limbs they laid them straight ; but they soon after returned 

 to their former curve. The phalanges of the fingers were not so much softened, 

 but were easily cut, and bent like whale-bone. The femur, vvas rather a fleshy 

 body than a bone ; its cavity was filled with a reddish suet, instead of marrow, 

 which, accumulated in different points, bulged out the fleshy sides. The capa- 

 city of the pelvis was much diminished; the bones, that compose it, were soft- 

 ened, thickened, and contracted. The spine kept its natural form ; the vertebrae 

 , soft and supple. The sternum, and all the cellular bones, seemed solid, but 

 could bend, and were easily cut. The ribs, though softened, were still friable. 

 Some of them, towards the sternum, were doubled over each other. The cla- 

 vicles seemed almost cartilaginous. The shoulder-blades were much thicker than 

 natural, less broad, and entirely disfigured. The 2 protuberances called acro- 

 mion and coracoides almost joined. The skull-bones were easily cut in slices, 

 and were twice as thick as in their natural state. Both plates were joined in one, 

 and no traces at all of a diploe. Their substance abounded with an extremely 

 diluted serum, easily squeezed out by a gentle pressure of the fingers. The su- 

 tures almost obliterated : the bones of the basis and face shared in the calamity. 

 The teeth hard as usual. The dura mater was incorporated with the bones. 

 The brain not softer than ordinary : its right hemisphere was by one third larger 

 than the left ; and hence, perhaps, the weakness of her left side, often manifested 

 by pains, achs, defluxions, heaviness, falls on that side, and every illness which 

 she had from her infancy, beginning in some part of it. When young, she fell 



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