Epiphysis

“ The proximal end or head is evenly rounded and is formed by an epiphysis ossifying from a centre different from that forming the shaft. It articulates with the glenoid cavity. The shaft bears on the flexor surface, at some little distance behind the head, a prominent rounded protuberance, the deltoid ridge. The distal end or trochlea is also formed by an epiphysis and is partially divided by a groove into two convex surfaces; it articulates with the two bones of the fore-arm, the radius and ulna. [264] ”

“ Deformity, with stiffness and locking at the adjacent joint, especially at the elbow, may result from imperfect reduction, or from exuberant callus. Arrest of growth of the bone in length is a rare sequel, and when it occurs, it is due, not to premature union of the epiphysis with the shaft, but to diminished action at the ossifying junction.
When the growth of one of the bones of the leg or forearm is arrested after separation of its epiphysis while the other bone continues to grow, the foot or hand is deviated towards the side of the shorter one. ”

“ As the epiphyses at the knee are mainly responsible for the growth in length of the lower extremity, and are late in uniting with their respective shafts—twenty-one to twenty-five years—serious shortening of the limb may result if their functions are interfered with, whether by disease or injury. The epiphysial cartilages lie beyond the limits of the synovial cavity, so that infective lesions at the ossifying junctions are less likely to spread to the joint than is the case at the hip or shoulder, where the upper epiphysis lies partly or wholly within the joint ”

“ But the denuded parts will drop off, and the limb become shortened.
Part XLII Dislocations at the joints are to a greater and less extent. Those that are to a less extent are the most easily reduced; those that are to a greater extent occasion lesions of the bones, of the ligaments, of the joints, of the fleshy parts, and of the attitudes. The thigh and arm resemble one another very much in their dislocations.
Notes ↑ Epiphysis means a close union of the two bones by means of a ligament. ”

“ The proximity of an easily fractured bone also contributes to prevent dislocation of certain joints—for example, fracture of the clavicle prevents an impinging force expending itself on the shoulder-joint; and the frequency of Colles' fracture of the radius, and of Pott's fracture of the fibula, doubtless accounts to some extent for the rarity of dislocation of the wrist and ankle-joints respectively. The immunity from dislocation which the joints of young subjects enjoy is partly due to the ease with which an adjacent epiphysis is separated. ”

“ With regard to the pressure epiphyses, they form a cap which protects the epiphysial line, or plate of cartilage, by means of which the bone in- creases in length, but they are certainly not essential to the growth of a bone, because they often do not appear until the bone has been growing for a long time, while in birds they are not found at all. ”

“ It seemed as if the box were bewitched, and as if the cottage were not big enough to hold it, without Pandora's continually stumbling over it, and making Epimetheus stumble over it likewise, and bruising all four of their shins.
Well, it was really hard that poor Epimetheus should have a box in his ears from morning till night; especially as the little people of the earth were so unaccustomed to vexations, in those happy days, that they knew not how to deal with them. Thus, a small vexation made as much disturbance, then, as a far bigger one would in our own times. ”

“ In other types the epiblast is several cells deep even before the differentiation of a medullary plate. In the Anura, the nervous layer of the epidermis alone is thickened in the formation of the central nervous system (fig. 72) ; and after the closure of the medullary canal, the epidermic layer fuses for a period with the nervous layer, though on the subsequent formation of the central epithelium of the nervous canal, there can be little doubt that it becomes again distinct. ”

“ All that exists, says Epicurus, is corporeal (τὸ πᾶν ἐστι σῶμα) ; the intangible is non-existent, or empty space. If a thing exists it must be felt, and to be felt it must exert resistance. But not all things are intangible which our senses are not subtle enough to detect. We must indeed accept our feelings; but we must also believe much which is not directly testified by sensation, if only it serves to explain phenomena and does not contravene our sensations. The fundamental postulates of Epicureanism are atoms and the void (ἄτομα καὶ κενόν) . ”

“ Indirect violence, especially when exerted in such a way as to combine traction with torsion,—for example, when the foot is caught in the spokes of a carriage wheel,—is the commonest cause of epiphysial separation. Direct violence is a much less frequent cause. Muscular action occasionally produces separation of the epiphyses—for example, the anterior superior iliac spine, the small trochanter of the femur, or the upper end of the fibula. ”

“ The epiblast of the body of the embryo, though several rows of cells deep, does not become divided into two strata till late in embryonic life; so that the organs of sense formed from the epiblast, which are the same as in the types already described, are not specially formed from an inner nervous stratum. The medullary canal is closed in the same [Pg 167] manner as in Elasmobranchii, the Frog, etc., by the simple conversion of an open groove into a closed canal. The closure commences first of all in the region of the mid-brain, and extends rapidly backwards and more slowly forwards. ”

“ In general, the asphyxiæ which are occasioned by the circulation of the black blood unmixed with any deleterious substance, are not accompanied with those spasms, which in so many other sorts of death, are so [273] frequent. These spasms, which evacuate the organs of their fluids, should be carefully distinguished from the simple relaxations of the sphincters, by which analogous effects are produced. [98] In asphyxia, all is debility, in asphyxia, we never see that augmentation of life, that development of power, which so frequently mark the latter movements of the dying. ”

“ The Epitasis, wherein the action is more fully entered upon and heightened, till it arrives at its state or height called the Catastasis, and which usually takes up the 2d and 3d act, is included within that busy period of my tale, betwixt the first night's uproar about the nose, to the conclusion of the trumpeter's wife's lectures upon it in the middle of the grand parade ”

“ If, after using the Aconite, the eruption breaks out and the fever abates, no further medication is necessary. If fever and eruption should require further aid, Apis is to be given, one or two globules of thirtieth potency in seven dessert-spoonfuls of water, well shaken, a dessert-spoonful morning and evening; or, if the disease is very acute, every three hours, which treatment is to be continued until an improvement sets in, after which the natural reaction of the organism will terminate the cure. ”

“ Male. Tawny, long, shining, minutely pubescent; head pale luteous, with a broad black stripe which emits an oblique branch on each side to the eye, and with a black band by the epistoma; antennæ nearly reaching the epistoma; 3rd joint linear, rounded at the tip, thrice the length of the 2nd; arista plumose; thorax with two short black lines, each with a black spot in front; pectus with a black mark on each side; abdomen fusiform, longer but hardly narrower than the thorax; legs long, hardly pubescent ”

“ It was impossible that there should be no discharge of mucus from the nose, since man's body has been composed as it is; for that reason nature made hands, and the nostrils like tubes to discharge the humours. If, therefore, a man snuffs back these discharges of mucus, I say that he is not acting as a human being should. 10It was impossible that the feet should not get muddy, nor dirty at all, when they pass through certain such substances; for that reason nature has provided water, for that hands. It was impossible that some impurity from eating should not remain on the teeth ”

“ Such a combination of symptoms not only shows a higher degree of intensity of the disease, but also shows that the organism is still capable of battling against the internal disease, by compelling it to leave the interior tissue, and to develop itself externally. It is the first business of the physician to support the organism in this tendency, and to guard the brain and bowels from every destructive relapse. Apis, employed as above, accomplishes this result more speedily than any other drug. ”

“ Epictetus, a celebrated Stoic philosopher of the 1st century, originally a slave; lived and taught at Rome, but after the expulsion of the philosophers retired to Nicopolis, in Epirus; was lame, and lived in poverty; his conversations were collected by Arrian, and his philosophy in a short manual under the Greek name of “Enchiridion of Epictetus,” written, as is alleged, in utter obliviousness of the fact that “the end of man is an action, not a thought.”
Epicureans, a sect of philosophers who derived their name from Epicurus, and who divided the empire of philosophy with the Stoics (q. v.) ”

“ Hence we may with propriety give Apis in these affections. Practical experience has abundantly confirmed these conclusions. For the last four years, I have cured readily, safely and easily all forms of erysipelas which have come under my notice—œdematous, smooth, vesicular, light or dark colored, seated or wandering, phlegmonous, recent or habitually recurring, of a light or inveterate character, repelled, among individuals of every disposition and age. I have never seen all kinds of pain yield more readily; I have never seen the accompanying fever abate more speedily ”

“ IPHIGENIA.
A seer called Calchas! Did he ever come ...?
ORESTES. Calchas is dead, as the news went at home.
IPHIGENIA. Good news, ye gods!—Odysseus, what of him?
ORESTES. Not home yet, but still living, as men deem.
IPHIGENIA. Curse him! And may he see his home no more.
ORESTES. Why curse him? All his house is stricken sore.
IPHIGENIA. How hath the Nereid's son, Achilles, sped?
ORESTES. Small help his bridal brought him! He is dead.
IPHIGENIA. A fierce bridal, so the sufferers tell!
ORESTES. Who art thou, questioning of Greece so well?
IPHIGENIA. I was Greek. Evil caught me long ago. ”

“ Epicurus expresses the same ideas in other works, and adds that the soul is composed of atoms of the most perfect lightness and roundness; atoms wholly different from those of fire. He distinguishes in it the irrational part which is diffused over the whole body, from the rational part which has its seat in the chest, as is proved by the emotions of fear and joy. He adds that sleep is produced when the parts of the soul diffused over the whole of the body concentre themselves, or when they [449] disperse and escape by the pores of the body ”

“ In the second place the cells of the upper pole or epiblast consist of two layers—an outer called the epidermic layer and an inner called the nervous. In the previous cases the epiblast consisted of a single layer of cells. The presence of these two layers is due to a distinction which, arising in most other vertebrates late, in the Frog arises early. In most other vertebrates in the later stages of development the epiblast consists of an outer layer of passive and an inner of active cells. ”

“ Nearly at the same time there arises not far [Pg 31] from the same point of the embryo, but on the opposite side, a solid thickening of epiblast which forms the rudiment of the nervous system. The nervous system is placed close to the front end of the body; and nearly at the opposite pole, and therefore at the hind end, there appears immediately below the epiblast a mass of cells forming a provisional organ known as the elæoblast. Todaro regards this organ as mesoblastic in origin, and Salensky as hypoblastic. ”

“ And so Mary and I brought him home in our collecting box, together with the torn body of Pepsis with her wings of slow fire dulled by the dust of her last struggles. And though it is a whole month now since Eurypelma received his stab from the poisoned javelin of Pepsis, he has not recovered; nor will he ever. When you touch him, he [527] draws up slowly one leg after another, or moves a palpus feebly. But it is living death; a hopeless paralytic is the king. ”

“ These are the communications of the capillary system that explain how the skin becomes livid on the place on which a dead body has for a long time lain, as on the back, for example; how by turning a dead body, so that the head may hang down, it becomes full of fluid; how, on the contrary, by placing upright the body of one dead from apoplexy, asphyxia, &c. the capillary system of the face is freed in a great measure from the blood it contained ”

“ Apis is the universal remedy in intermittent fevers, for which every homœopathic physician has been longing, and which pure experiments, conducted according to the rules of homœopathy, have revealed to us;—another shining light on the sublime path of the healing artist!
The beneficent action of Apis, in intermittent fever, is still increased by the fact that it prevents the supervention of typhus, disorganizations of the spleen, dropsy, china-cachexia. ”

“ Then brave Iphicles, eager, methought, to help him, stumbled and fell to earth ere he might reach him, nor could he stand upright again, but lay helpless, like a weak old man, whom joyless age constrains to fall when he would not; so he lieth on the ground as he fell, till one passing by lift him up by the hand, regarding the ancient reverence for his hoary beard. Thus lay on the earth Iphicles, wielder of the shield. ”