Osteomyelitis: Historical review

I. EARLIEST OCCURRENCE: Osteomyelitis seems to have been a frequent occurrence not only in man, but also in fossil animals. Moodie described gross and microscopical features identical with those of osteomyelitis following fracture of the posterior dorsal spine of a Permian reptile.(') This denotes that the disease has been encountered at such an early period of history of the earth, long before the advent of man.(2) Associated with trauma, as it is, it must have affected early man frequently as his wild life exposed him to frequent open injuries. The proofs of its existence should have survived over the years. The paleopathology of soft tissues may not have but a limited material to illustrate it and only in well conserved mummies. On the other hand, bone is well preserved by its own nature and any disease that has affected it will leave its impression on it. As a matter of fact, the bones of dawn man, of which thousands of skeletons have reached us, being unearthed from the caves and buried grounds of Europe, Asia and Northern Africa, tell us that a common disease was inflammation of the bones, involving a joint and producing a deformity.(3) The word pus has appeared quite early in the medical terminology. The Edwin-Smith Papyrus, " the earliest surgical treatise"(4) mentions the word "ryt" (pus) five times in its hieroglyphic text. Of course osteomye-