Guy's Hosptal Reports. Third Series. Vol. X.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1864 Excerpt: ... Some diseases are especially interesting on account of their frequency and obvious practical importance, others seem rather to attract attention because they are so rare and (when met with) appear so curious. But it is manifestly desirable to become acquainted, as far as we can, with every form of disease that may possibly present itself, as well as with those forms which actually occur most frequently. Moreover, striking instances are not wanting in which cases and specimens, long regarded as mere pathological curiosities, have been found to possess important practical bearings when advancing knowledge has led to the recognition of their true significance. I need, therefore, offer no apology for devoting the following few pages to the discussion of some points in connection with those remarkable conditions of the bones which are called respectively (and not inappropriately) Mollities Ossium or Osteomalacia, and Osteoporosis, especially that form of the latter which, when affecting the head, has sometimes been designated Hyperostosis Cranii. Each of these conditions is very rare, at any rate in those advanced stages in which alone, in the present state of our knowledge, it can be recognised. Each (the latter especially) has been accidentally discovered after death in many instances in which its presence had never been suspected, much less accurately diagnosed, during life; and further, there is, I believe, a very intimate relation, in point of succession, between the two conditions to the existence of which, as far as I have been able to ascertain, attention has hitherto been but very imperfectly, if at all, directed. Before entering upon the discussion of the general history of these diseases, however, I would venture to ask attention to the details of a f...