CHAPTER VII. 
The venereal difeafe (Tab. xli. xlii. xlviii) rarely attacks any but the hard- 
cfl parts ot the bones, very foon raifing large tumours and caries or mor¬ 
tification ; but thcle caries parts of bones from this or other caufes are 
but partially mortified, for were they perfectly lo, the found and unfound 
parts would feparate though the integuments were not taken off; whence 
it happens, that where there is a good habit of body caries bones are often 
endured many years without much inconvenience r and we find from ex¬ 
perience that 1 uch feparations are not to be made till the difeafed part is 
laid bare and perfectly mortified by being expofed to the air, tkc. and then 
the found part underneath feparating from the unfound there firft gra¬ 
nulates a fungous flefhlike appearance, which ought never to be treated 
with corrofive medicines, it conftantly fhrinking and hardning of it felf, be¬ 
ing the fame fiibftance which fhoots from the ends of broken bones, where 
alfo it foon fhrinks and converts into a callous to reunite them. 
There is a caries diffindt from thefe, which I have only feen in two pa¬ 
tients who died after a long rheumatic diforder, in which the obiter fur- 
face of all the hardelf bones as the middle of the cilindrical bones and 
the top of the {cull, in one which I boiled, and in the other as far as I 
was allowed to examine I found the outer part every where crumbly or 
fcaly, falling into pieces like duff or fand, with very little appearance of tu¬ 
mour any where, and no appearance of difeafe in the fpongy parts. 
The difeafes of the joynts either happen from ulcers in the lubrica¬ 
ting, glands which pouring out matter that cannot be difeharged, fouls 
the ends of the bones, or clfe from fwellings in the ends of the rcfpcctivc 
bones, either of thefe in time create exceflive pain, which appears to me 
to be chiefly in the ligaments of the joynts, notwithftanding what has 
beenfaid of the infenlibility of thefe parts by authors. When a joynt is 
much fwelled, in thefe cafes it is vulgarly called a white fwelling, and 
more properly than fpina vertofa; and whatever may be done (of which I 
never dare promife much) when once the limb wafles, and the fingers or 
toes of the limb grow thinner at their joynts, lofe their lhape, and are 
what a painter would call out of drawing, the cafe then is abfolutely irre¬ 
coverable. Sometimes in thefe cafes the ends of the bones erode, then joy n 
together and form an anchylofis (Tab. xlvii. li.) which though a bad difeafe 
of it felf, yet it is often a remedy of this difeafe, which is much worfe: 
In like manner the bones of the hands and feet (Tab. liv.) when they are 
ulcerated lometimes unite and are thus preferved from total ruin. But 
there is one cafe of a white fwelling that is amazing, where the pain is fo 
great that we arc forced to take off the limb, and yet neither perceive the 
