E. MINK. 
108 
“In many cases (for example, under the irritant pressure of an 
aneurism), he will find that a quantity of bone has thus gone, 
leaving no trace behind—gone, of course, only after having first 
became liquid ; and it appears that when bone is inflamed, the 
first step towards this disintegration consists in a breach of the 
ordinary union between the mineral and cartilaginous constitu¬ 
ents, with a primary removal of the former and a chemical 
change of the latter. If there be discharge from the inflamed 
part, there will be found in it bits of bone, chemically and micro¬ 
scopically demonstrable. 
“ Let him examine inflamed nerve, as, for instance, near to 
where it has been cut in amputation. He will find, says Dr. 
Lent, the medullary cylinder of each nerve tube falling, as it 
were, by cross-cuts into irregular pieces—at first large, but as the 
process advances, getting smaller and rounder, and assuming the 
character of oil, till at last the tube membrane is filled with oily 
material, which gradually undergoes removal. 
“ Let him examine the hard textures of an acutely suppurat¬ 
ing joint. He will find the strongest ligaments in course of being 
reduced to an incoherent state—either actually pulpy and half 
liquefied and in course of removal, or ready to break with the 
least traction; he will find, if the inflammation has been primar¬ 
ily synovial, that the cartilage is smoothly melting away at its 
surface iuto the fluid which bathes it; or, if the disease have 
begun subarticularly, that the cartilage, where subjacent to cari¬ 
ous bone, is irregularly eroded and perforated; and throughout, 
with the microscope, he will find, wherever there are evidences of 
advancing disintegration, that the softening of material is abun¬ 
dantly marked with oil-drops. 
“ Let him—not in post-mortem examinations, for which there 
are no opportunities, but during life—observe the results of in¬ 
flammation of the sclerotic, and ask himself why it is that 
staphyloma so often follows this disease. He will infer that here, 
as with other cases which we have considered, the inflammation 
must have so disorganized the texture, and so enfeebled its nor¬ 
mal rigidity, that it can no longer give sufficient resistance to 
pressure from within, or save itself from being bulged by what 
