PRO CEEDI3STQS 
OF THE 
October 21st. — Mr. W. W. Stoddart, President, in the Chair. 
The minutes of the last meeting having been read and confirmed, 
Mr. S. K. Swayjste, M.R.C.S., read a paper on " Some structural changes 
in growing mammalian bone, especially with regard to the Vascular canals.'' 
After some introductory remarks on the structure and development of 
osseous tissue generally, the author proceeded to describe some of the chief 
characteristics exhibited by sections of the shafts of the long bones in young 
mammals, as distinguished from those taken from the adult or aged, The 
only published reference to this subject that the author had been able to find 
was the following passage in Kollicker's Human Microscopical Anatomy — 
" Festal and unfinished bones present, in cross sections, almost no trans- 
versely cut canals, but chiefly such as run horizontally in the direction of 
the tangent and radius, so that the bones appear to be wholly composed of 
short thick layers, each of which, on close examination, is found to belong 
to two canals, which relation is also indicated by a faint line of separation 
in the middle of each layer. In man this condition is still observable at the 
eighteenth year." 
This passage, and the accompanying illustration, has been copied into 
subsequent compilations and manuals. Mr. Swayne had found that this 
condition existed in all the young mammalian long bones that he had 
examined, these being taken from the ox, sheep and hog. Transverse 
longitudinal-radial and longitudinal-tangential sections of these bones were 
exhibited, showing a much freer development of the vascular canals than 
aged bones exhibit, and a very imperfect formation of the circular Haver- 
sian systems with their laminae and lacunse, which are found in older bones. 
