INTRODUCTION. XII
It can searecly be stated that the bones participate in
all the disorders of the system, which directly give rise
to depravation of the fluids cireulating through the soft
tissues, and, In eonsequenee, to changes in their com-
ponent elements, Whatever peculiar immunities from
disease the bones evince, are, it may be presumed, owing
to the character of their organization, in respect to the
earthy eonstituents so largely entering into their eompo-
sition. There are, however, instances in whieh the bones,
participating in the general disorders of the system,
do undergo changes in their elements, and throw forth
morbid produets of the same character as those oeeurring
at the time in the softer tissues of the body. Thus in
gout, the carthy phosphates in the bones have been
diminished, peculiar produets have been found in them,
and peeuliar conerctions have been thrown forth from
them, but they were sueh as are characteristic of the
gouty constitution’.
It is a peculiar feature in the morbid history of bone,
4 Chemical Composition of Concretions from Gouty Bones, Marchand, Journal f. Pract. Chemie. Oct. 1842.
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