General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 2 (of 3)Bichat, Xavier
Science
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Bichat, Xavier
Human anatomy; Human physiology
When the whole bone is cartilaginous, and even when some points appear
to be still mucous, the exhalation of calcareous substance begins, and
then the osseous state manifests itself; the following is the manner;
the bone becomes more dense, then of a deeper colour, and finally
of a very evident yellow in its middle, that is to say where the
ossification should begin; gradually a red point appears; these are the
vessels that begin to receive the red portion of the blood, and not to
be developed as some anatomists pretend, to be hollowed out according
to their expression, by the force of the impulse of the heart. They
always existed; the white fluids alone penetrated them before, then the
red globules are admitted into them. At the same time the neighbouring
parts are encrusted with calcareous substance. This period is then
remarkable in two particulars, viz. in respect to the entrance of the
blood into the cartilaginous bone, and in regard to the exhalation of
the phosphate of lime. These two phenomena are always inseparable; when
there is redness in one part of the cartilages, there are also osseous
points; this is observed not only in common ossification, but also in
those which are not so, such as the ossifications of the cartilages
of the larynx, of the ribs, &c. When we examine the progress of the
exhalation of the earthy substance, we see always in the bones, whether
long, flat or short, a very red vascular layer, between the cartilage
and the portion of ossified bone. This layer seems to serve as a
precursor to the osseous state. Why do the vessels of the bones which
before had admitted only white fluids, receive then red globules? It
is not, as Boerhaave would have said, had he treated of ossification,
because their caliber increases, but because the sum of their organic
sensibility increasing, they are then found in relation with the red
portion, which until then was foreign to them. Their caliber might be
treble or quadruple the diameter of the red globules, but these would
not enter if the organic sensibility repelled them, as the larynx
rises against a body which attempts to enter it, though this body may
be infinitely less than the glottis. It is by an increase of organic
sensibility, that must also be explained how the bone, until then a
stranger to calcareous substance, being in relation only with the
gelatine, appropriates also to itself the first of these substances,
and is penetrated with ease.
I will observe only that there is this difference between the
exhalation of the two, that the first comes immediately from the red
portion of the blood, since wherever it is deposited, there is, as I
have said, blood vessels; whilst the second appears to come immediately
from the white fluids, since the vessels of the tendons, the cartilages
and the other parts that they nourish, do not evidently receive in
their natural state any red globules, and all that circulates in them
appears to be white.
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