Page:A Treatise on the Diseases of the Bones.djvu/23

Rh by the French pathologists, has often been confounded with a disease of the bones called Exostosis; and I am persuaded that many of those reputed cures of exostosis, made by empirics, by means of friction, &c. were nothing more than indolent inflammatory swellings of the periosteum.

Both the acute and chronic varieties of this affection occur as the results of rheumatism, and as a secondary symptom of syphilis.

2. The morbid degenerations to which the periosteum is liable, closely resemble those which occur in common cellular tissue. They are sometimes primary and sometimes consecutive; but both the primary and consecutive degenerations of the periosteum present similar pathological characters; and it is a matter of little consequence to the student or practitioner, whether the degeneration has originated in the periosteum itself, or has extended to it from the bone or neighbouring soft parts.

We sometimes find that the periosteum has lost its proper dense fibrous appearance, and is converted into a soft pulpy matter. Occasionally it