286 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
3. The contracted and flat pelvis is not due to softness of the 
bones, but simply and solely to arrested growth of the 
innominate bones. 
4. The large size of the ends of the long bones is only 
apparent ; their measurements are the same as the ends of 
normal bones. 
5. The curvatures of the long bones are not the result of any 
softening, but due to arrest of the central cartilaginous 
growth and progressive periosteal growth from the peri- 
phery inwards. The curves, moreover, are all exaggera- 
tions of the normal curves. 
6. The histological changes at the ossifying junctions of the 
long bones are strikingly different from those seen in 
rickets. 
7. The membrane bones which participate in rachitic processes 
are quite normal. 
8. There is not such a thing as a microscopical record of a pro- 
gressing foetal rickets, hence its occurrence only rests upon 
conjecture. 
The question whether it is, or is not, a foetal form of cretinism is 
less easily disposed of, chiefly because we really know so very little 
about cretinism. In the published description of what is called 
sporadic cretinism, the most striking lesion appears to be a pre- 
mature arrest of endochondral ossification occurring during infancy 
or childhood, like that we have here described as having taken 
place during the early months of intra-uterine life. Further, certain 
abnormalities of the thyroid have been met with in the former ; and 
in our specimen there are distinctly abnormal changes in the same 
organ, consisting in proliferation and desquamation of the alveolar 
epithelium, together with an extraordinary fulness and distension 
of the blood-vessels. 
With reference to the causation of the lesion, we do not regard 
the assault received by the mother during the sixth month of her 
pregnancy as of any etiological importance, in virtue of the evident 
fact that the arrest of development occurred at a much earlier period. 
