Tuberculosis of bones and joints.

  • Senn, Nicholas, 1844-1908.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tuberculosis of bones and joints. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    LEEDS S*^T Sl-F.IDINC »10<COCWFUKC1CAL SOCIETY Tuberculosis of Bones and Joints. CHAPTER I. History. The history of tubercular affections of bones and joints is quite an interesting one, as the early part of it gives an account of the crudest ideas in reference to the etiology, pathology, and treatment of these affections; while that part Avhich covers the last decade bristles with new revelations and startling discov- eries, based on accurate clinical observation, microscopical examination, bacteriological investigation, and experimental research. No department in medicine or surgery has witnessed a more radical change than the etiology of tuberculosis of bones and joints. During the time of Hippocrates some general facts were understood, such as that phthisis develops more or less directly after certain surgical accidents or diseases; but nothing definite was known. Less than a century ago, we find chronic inflammatory affections of bone designated by such vague terms as S2nna ventosa, osteophthoria, osteospongiosis (Lobstein), and pcBclarthrocace (Severin). J. L. Petit did not know under what head he should classify these affections. He was in serious doubt whether they should be classified with exostosis, softening of bone, caries, atrophy, necrosis, or whether they formed a separate group of bone-lesions, which should be brought under a distinct head. Tuberculosis of bone, as we now understand it, was described by Boerhave as a destructive process in the epiphyses, extending from witliin outward. A. G. Richter, Bottcher, and Hebenstreit regarded it as a caries commencing in the interior of the medullary canal. Augustin defined it as an inflammatory process in the interior of bone, which, in its course, brought about complete tcxtural changes