An Account of the Case of Anne Elizabeth Queriot, of Paris, Whose Bones Were Distorted and Softened; By Ambrose Hosty, M. D. of the Faculty of Paris

is nothing in either of them, that is inconsistent with the history, I conclude, from a number of other circumstances besides, that this really was the eclipse foretold by Thales. I was not a little pleased, upon looking into my papers, to find, that Bayer and I agreed so exactly in the very year, as I was a stranger to what he had said upon that subject, till you brought me that volume of the *Petersburgh Acts*; and as the principles I proceeded upon were something different from his. This, however, is a presumption, that we are right, and confirms my opinion of some other articles in chronology, wherein I differ from some very great names. I am, Dear Sir, Ilip, May 21, 1752. Your very faithful and obliged humble servant, G. Costard. IV. An Account of the Case of Anne Elizabeth Queriot, of Paris, whose Bones were distorted and softened; by Ambroise Hofty, M.D. of the Faculty of Paris. Read Jan, 25, 1753. ANNE Elizabeth Queriot*, aged 35, native of Paris, was married in the year 1746 to a wool-carder. Tho' seemingly * Her marriage-name was Supiot. An extraordinary Case of the successive soft a.a. The Balls of the Knees b.b. The Condyles or Elbows c. The right Wrist shrunk in d. The first Deformity which appear'd e.e. The Clavicles rais'd into an arch f. The point of the Sternum rais'd & turn'd obliquely towards the rht g. Swellings on the second of the ribs Case of the successive softening of the Bones. The clavicles raised into an arch from the point of the sternum and obliquely towards the right ribs on the second of the ribs. h.h. The partitions of the Breast depressed before i.i. The toes bent within k.k. Parts of the Skin become callous. of a delicate constitution, yet she enjoyed tolerable health, having never had any dangerous illness before her marriage. She was brought to bed in 1747, in the month of September, and for the first time complained of great weakness in the small of her back, loins, and thighs, and could scarce walk. A second lying-in, a year after, removed her complaints for about six weeks; after which they returned. In the year 1749, being two months and a half with child, she was unaccountably seized with a loss of blood; upon which she miscarried. Two months after, she fell accidentally upon her left side; which gave her great pain in the leg, thigh, and hip of that side, and made them swell: but there was neither fracture or dislocation. Her pains in some time abated; but the weakness of her limbs continued. She was soon after with child, and, in the beginning of her pregnancy, had a second fall; which revived her former pains, and caused new ones all over her body, and a swelling, as before. This confined her to her bed, yet her pregnancy went on very well, and terminated as happily; by which the swelling went off; but her limbs were so weak, that she could not bear upon her feet. She then fell into the hands of quacks, who gave nothing worth mentioning, that I could hear of. About a year since she was blooded on the hand twice, took a course of baths in the decoction of the ashes of vine-twigs, had different pultries applied to her, and embrocations of oils and balsams, which enabled her to walk by the help of crutches. In about six months after child birth, her pains returned more violent than before; and about the fame time, an abundance of white chalky sediment appear'd in her urine; and the fore-finger of her right-hand was observed to be distorted towards the little finger; which was the first appearance of the dissolution, that ensued. Soon after the lower extremities began to turn upwards gradually, and almost in a parallel line with her body, and continuing, in nine months was reduced to the posture exhibited by the print drawn last August. All the bones were affected, especially the thorax, which had lost its natural form and capacity. This miserable state was constantly attended with exquisite pains; and, according to the seat thereof, the patient used to say, "Now such a part works." Sometimes they abated, and then she felt so sore, as not to bear being touched: And during this ease from her pains, a quantity of the above-said sediment pass'd by urine, and little or none in her sufferings. It is quite cretaceous, and, reduced into a fine powder, ferments gently with acids. Little of it appeared since I began to visit the patient; so that I could not get a sufficient quantity thereof to make farther inquiry. I refer to the print; it being almost impossible, without it, to conceive the figure she made, and the distortion of her limbs. She could bear no covering, but a few napkins, both from inward heat, and to avoid loading her breast. I shall only remark, that, since the print was drawn, her right foot and hand got above her head. Notwithstanding this preternatural posture, the evacuations by stool and urine were regularly performed, and with great ease. Her flesh seemed dead and oedematous, the skin rough and scaly, scaly; so that I often apprehended a mortification. She had a cough, a laborious respiration, and sometimes a spitting of blood, from the coarctation of her breast, all its bones plying inwardly. She was capable of no other motion but of turning her head on both sides, stirring her left arm in the shoulder-joint only, and separating her fingers, but not bending them. She had her menses regularly, till about three months before her death. She generally had a low fever, inward heat, sweats, and restlessness. She took antiscorbutics during the months of June and July, to no purpose. Her fever ran very high in August, attended with deliriums, headachs, ravings, and subfultus tendinum. A little before her death came on a deafness, a dimness of sight, a scalding of her eyes, and a constant dropping; violent pains in her head; in short, a great weakness in all the organs, which shew'd how much the head was then affected. The distortion of her limbs went on so fast in August and September, that almost every third day I could observe something new; especially the left foot, during that time, came down gradually near 18 inches from under her ear, where it lay before. It was also observed in August, that her neck grew visibly smaller, the thorax much narrower. I then also remarked, that the napkins, upon which she spit, grew black in the washing, and stained as from the mercurial ointment; tho' I could not suspect it, as I could not learn she had ever used any mercury. In a month after, I observed the same thing on all the linen, that touched her skin. I got a napkin rubbed with soap, then dried, and afterwards washed. This method method had almost taken off the stains, as it does those from the mercurial ointment. Her linen stained all the washing, like linen impregnated with the above-said unguent. Those spots appeared on the linen a mixture of a cretaceous matter and grease. Since this remark was made, none of the white sediment was seen. This, and the apparent nature of the stains, made me believe, that it was then discharged by spittle, and the pores of the skin, and mixed with oily particles of her fluids, which had acquired a quality analogous (if I may so speak) to that of mercury, of staining all linen. I am also apt to think, that this sediment was the earthy matter, that gives the bones their solidity and hardness, which had been dissolved by the same vitiated quality of the fluids, and evacuated by the emunctories already mentioned. After great sufferings, she died the 9th of November. By the consent of her husband, I had her open'd, in the presence of some of the most celebrated anatomists and academicians of this city. The operation was begun on the left tibia, cutting on the fore-part of it, from below the knee to its basis. It was wonderfully alter'd; more or less soft in all its length; in some points entirely dissolved, and its sides not thicker than the gristle of the ear. The spongy substance of its extremities supple, yielding to the least pressure. The reticular matter was quite destroyed. The peroné was entirely dissolved in the middle, and only slight marks of its extremities remain'd. Instead of marrow, we found in all the bones a red thick matter, like coagulated blood mixed mixed with grease. The rotula was entire, but very soft and spongy; the condyles of the femur the same. All the cartilages were found in their natural state. The head of the humerus was much diminished and flatten'd: Its middle part very small, pliable softened in all points, yet in some friable. The cubitus and radius suffer'd the same alterations with the humerus. By stretching all her limbs we laid them straight; but they soon after returned to their former curve. The phalanges of the fingers were not so much soften'd, but were easily cut, and bent like whalebone. The femur was rather a fleshy body than a bone; its cavity was filled with a reddish suet, instead of marrow, which, accumulated in different points, bulged out the fleshy sides. The capacity of the pelvis was much diminished; the bones, that compose it, were soften'd, thicken'd, and contracted. The spine kept its natural form; the vertebrae soft and supple. The sternum, and all the cellular bones, seem'd solid, but could bend, and were easily cut. The ribs, tho' soften'd, were still friable. Some of them, towards the sternum, were doubled over one another. The clavicles seem'd almost cartilaginous. The shoulder-blades were much thicker than natural, less broad, and intirely disfigured. The two protuberances call'd acromion and coracoides almost joined. The skull-bones were easily cut in slices, twice as thick as in their natural state. Both plates were joined in one, and no traces at all of a diploe. Their substance abounded with an extremely diluted serum, easily squeezed out by a gentle pressure of one's fingers. The sutures almost obliterated: The bones of the basis and face shared in the calamity. The teeth hard hard as usual. The dura mater was incorporated with the bones. The brain not softer than ordinary: Its right hemisphere was by one third larger than the left; and hence, perhaps, the weakness of her left side, often manifested by pains, aches, defluxions, heaviness, falls on that side, and every illness, which she had from her infancy, beginning in some part thereof. When young, she fell upon her head down two pair of stairs. The membranes, that separate the two hemispheres of the brain, were much thicker than commonly. In fine, all her bones were so soft, that the scalpel with very little force ran thro' the hardest of them; even the rocky apophyse of the ear bone, so called from its excessive hardness. Nothing extraordinary was found in the viscera; but their size diminished by the compression, and an universal cachexy. There could be no cause assigned of this woman's disorder, as she gave no signs plain enough to prove either a scurvy, pox, or king's-evil, either hereditary, or acquired; her parents having lived healthy, the one to the age of eighty, and her mother being still alive, aged sixty, and in good health. She had three children, who died of disorders common to their age. One, 4 years old, died of the measles. The case was looked upon as very extraordinary, and the patient was seen as a curiosity. It is certainly rare, but there have been some similar cases, which are cited in the Abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions, in the remark upon the like case presented to the Royal Society, by Mr. Silvanus Bevan, Bevan, p. 458, &c. Vol. II. This differs from the other examples, by the sediment of the urine, the stain on her linen, the preternatural situation of her limbs. Something very singular was, that she did not blow her nose perhaps once a month, even in her health; always slept with her mouth open'd, and her tongue hanging out. The manner in which such dissolutions of bones are accounted for, in the above-mention'd remark, seems the most rational, plain, and satisfactory, that can be given. I attended this patient since last August with Dr. Morand, and kept a journal of our observations, hoping it may be of use to the public, and worth the notice of the curious. Paris, Dec. 10, 1752. Hosty, M. D. V. An account of a Roman altar, with an inscription upon it, found in April last at York, and communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. Francis Drake, F.R.S. As also a breif explication of the inscription by John Ward, LL.D. Professor of Rhetoric in Gresham College, and V. P. R. S. Read Feb. 1, 1753. THIS altar was found, with other remains of antiquity, by some workmen, in opening a new and deep drain down the centre of a large street, called Micklegate, in the city