EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE GROWTH OF LONG BONES

Abstract

Our attention was attracted to the question of growth of bone by Haas' article in the Archives of Surgery,¹ in which he reviewed fully the large amount of experimental work which had previously been done. It is of interest to note that the first work of this type was done by Duhamel in 1739, and that John Hunter made some careful experiments on growth of bone ninety years ago. While his results—still preserved in the Hunterian Museum—do not show any longitudinal increase in the shaft of bone in pigs and fowls, he concluded nevertheless that some growth can occur. Ollier,² a young Frenchman from Lyons, coming to Paris in 1857, attracted by that genius of medical research, Claude Bernard, plunged into this fascinating problem in the laboratory of Chaveau. After a series of experiments with periosteum, he became completely convinced of its osteogenic properties. He also noted that