Description of the diseased joints in the Museum of the Army Medical Department at Chatham / by George Gulliver.

  • Gulliver, George, 1804-1882.
Date:
[1837]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of the diseased joints in the Museum of the Army Medical Department at Chatham / by George Gulliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    t Ay, atrophy, and softening of cartilage. These changes ap- ear to originate in this tissue,—are often long confined exclu- vely t0 jtj—and are probably altogether independent of in- ammatory action. Of the former, I am not aware of any de- •ription in the books of pathology. Numbers 71 to 74 inclu- de, mark specimens of this affection in the knee-joint, showing ie cartilage of the patella hypertrophied, so as to present a ansverse ridge extending nearly across the articular surface of ie bone. The synovial aspect of the thickened part is con- iderably elevated, and perfectly smooth, except where its con- nuity is interrupted by the fissures with which it is sparingly ervaded, splitting the cartilaginous fibres into bundles of ir- pgular size and shape, each packet, however, retaining the na- aral gloss and consistency of true cartilage. When a section f the thickened portion is examined with a glass of an inch fo- js, the increase appears to be confined to the homogeneous ibstance intermediate to the fibres, contrary to what takes place ; a more advanced period of the disease, when the former dis- ppears, and the latter, losing entirely their lateral connection, ecome separate, hang loosely into the joint, and are even en- irged. In No. 68, the hypertrophy is partial, having been jcceeded in great measure by the later stage of atrophy and iftening. It is remarkable that all these cases occurred in soldiers who ied of pulmonary consumption, none of whom, as far as could e ascertained, had ever complained of their joints. Their ex- •eme ages were 24 and 82. It may be conjectured that the hange under consideration is preliminary to some diseases of ie articular cartilages which have been frequently observed, amely, their wasting and fibrous degeneration. Of the atrophy, or absorption of cartilage, so often seen in he joints of old persons, and of the deformity with which it is ccasionally connected, an excellent example is afforded by a nee-joint, the different parts of which are numbered, 61, 64, nd 65, in this section, and 62 and 63 in the following one. This rticulation appears to be closely allied to that described by Dr lodgkin in the catalogue of the museum at Guy’s Hospital, So. 1328. In the joint now before me, while parts of the arti- ular surfaces of the femur and tibia are completely divested of artilage, that of the patella is simply thinned, and slightly vil- ous on the surface. As the hypertrophy of cartilage, and se- rration of its substance into irregular masses, was conjectured o precede its softening and fibrous degeneration, so is it proba >le that the latter condition is preparatory to its complete atro- >hy. The preparations in the subsection 13, show the delicate illous appearance, with slight thinning of the cartilage, at an