86 THOMPSON YATES LABORATORIES REPORT 
I. Macintyre and Bench Jones's case.* A description of the urine was communicated 
to the Royal Society by Bence Jones in 1847, ^"'l ^^e whole case was brought before the 
Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society by Dr. Macintyre in 1850. 
A man 45 years of age suffered from excruciating pains in the chest, back, and loins 
for upwards of a year. The progress of the disease was not uniform, but striking temporary 
improvement was noticed from time to time. There was tenderness on percussing the chest, but 
no deformity was observed. The urine contained the albuminous body which we now call 
albumose, and gave reactions which had never been recognized before, but which were described 
in detail in the paper read before this society last April, and need not now be repeated. There 
was no suspicion during life that the bones were the seat of any morbid affection. 
At the post-mortem examination all the ribs were found to be soft and brittle. They 
could be readily cut with a knife, and could be broken by a very moderate amount of force. 
Their interior was charged with a gelatiniform substance of a blood-red colour and unctuous feel. 
The sternum and the bodies of the vertebrae were similarly affected, but the bones of the 
extremities were not affected, and the kidneys were healthy. 
The microscopical examination of two lumbar vertebrae and a rib was made by Mr. 
Dalrymple, whose description corresponds very closely with our case.t He says, 'The disease 
appears to have commenced in the cancellated structure of the bone, for the external osseous 
laminjE are firmer and more healthy than the internal. The external are still hard, requiring the 
exertion of some force to cut them ; they are thin, however, and when sliced expose large 
cancellous cavities filled with a red gelatiniform substance, threaded here and there by fine bony 
fibres.' The bulk of the gelatiniform tissue was composed of nucleated cells, but there were also 
present granular matter, oil globules, fat cells, caudate cells, and blood cells. It is worth noting 
that there is no mention of multinuclear myeloid cells. The condition was regarded as a form of 
moUities ossium ; but Mr. Dalrymple makes the shrewd remark that it bears some resemblance 
to a malignant disease of the bone, and in the light of subsequent research we shall hardly be 
wrong in concluding that this was in reality a case of multiple myeloma. 
II. The second case, KxIhne's,:]: observed in 1867, was that of a man aged 40, whose 
urine contained the body described by Bence Jones. Deformities and other indications of an 
affection of the bones of the trunk were observed during life, and the diagnosis of osteomalacia was 
made, but no post-mortem examination was obtained. 
III. The next case, which was investigated by Kahler and Huppert,§ was that of a 
medical man who died in 1887 at the age of 54, having been ill about 8 years. The symptoms 
were, for the most part, pain and tenderness, and, later, deformities in the bones of the trunk. 
Albumose was recognized in the urine for 6 years before the fatal termination. 
♦William Macintyre. 'Case of MoUities and Fragilitas Ossium accompanied with Urine strongly charged with Animal 
Matter. Mcd.-Chir. Trans.,' 1850, p. 211. Bence Jones, /or. «>. 
t John Dalrymple. 'On the Microscopal Character of MoUities Ossium. Dublin Quarterly Journ.of Med. Sci.,' 1846, p. 85. 
I W. Kiihne. ' Ueber Albumose im Harne. Zeitschr. f. Biolog.,' N. F., Bd. i, 1883, s. 210. 
§ O. Kahler. ' Zur Symptomatologie des Multiplen Myeloms : Beobachtung von Albumosurie. Prager med. 
Wochenschrift,' 1889, N. 4, 5. H. Huppert. ' Ein Fall von Albumosurie,' liiJ. 
