Supernumerary ribs are not at all uncommon in man, nearly every
medical museum having some examples. Cervical ribs are not rare.
Gordon describes a young man of seventeen in whom there was a
pair of supernumerary ribs attached to the cervical vertebrae.
Bernhardt mentions an instance in which cervical ribs caused
motor and sensory disturbances. Dumerin of Lyons showed an infant
of eight days which had an arrested development of the 2d, 3d,
4th, and 5th ribs. Cases of deficient ribs are occasionally met.
Wistar in 1818 gives an account of a person in whom one side of
the thorax was at rest while the other performed the movements of
breathing in the usual manner.
In some cases we see fissure of the sternum, caused either by
deficient union or absence of one of its constituent parts. In
the most exaggerated cases these fissures permit the exit of the
heart, and as a general rule ectopies of the heart are thus
caused. Pavy has given a most remarkable case of sternal fissure
in a young man of twenty-five, a native of Hamburg. He exhibited
himself in one medical clinic after another all over Europe, and
was always viewed with the greatest interest. In the median line,
corresponding to the absence of sternum, was a longitudinal
groove bounded on either side by a continuous hard ridge which
articulated with the costal cartilages.
Pages:
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540