This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
Anatomical History.—Very few subjects in surgical pathology excite at this moment as much interest as the tubercular affections of the bones and joints. This is especially shown by the many contributions in periodicals and monographs of late years treating very elaborately upon this question. That this subject is also of very great practical importance, no physician or surgeon who has met such cases will deny. The knowledge of tuberculosis of the bones may be traced to the earliest times. Hippocrates and Galen mention tubercle of bones in no indefinite terms, and the general observation that phthisis is at times the more or less direct outcome of surgical accidents or diseases did not escape their eyes. It must not, however, be imagined that they had a clear conception of its nature; they were not enabled at that time to distinguish between scrofulous, syphilitic and cancerous tubercles. In. 1735 Traugott Gerber, in