In Part 1 we demonstrated that bone marrow puncture in animals is a comparatively simple and harmless procedure and that it is a feasible and practical method of studying (in rabbits) both normal and pathologic bone marrows, yielding nearly as much information as fixation and sectioning of marrow obtained postmortem. Before proceeding to the clinical application of this method, on the patient, it became necessary to satisfy ourselves regarding certain questions that were uppermost in our minds during the experimental work.
Can the puncture be accomplished without pain and discomfort to the patient and is it safe?—After trying it out several times on cadavers, we became convinced that the cortex of the tibia could be pierced easily and quickly. We felt that it would be a simple matter to anesthetize the skin and periosteum so that the procedure would be practically painless. The question of safety will be dealt with