A morphological and experimental study of the growth of the skeleton in the posterior extremity of Gallus domesticus

Text from page 1: It is established that the thickness and the arrangement of the architecture of bone in the adult is regulated to a large extent by the action of mechanical stress and strain. It has not been determined how much of a factor this is in the growing animal nor how early in embryonic development this regulating action develops. It has been maintained by one man recently (R. Thoma) that mechanical factors control the growth of bone from the start- that beginning with the first formation of bone, mechanical stress and strain control the process. The present studies were started with a view of testing this portion of the problem, to find out if possible, whether the first formation of bone is dependent upon the action of mechanical forces, or whether it is regulated by some other factors. It was further designed to find out, in case bone were formed, whether it would have a normal architecture and a normal rate of growth during the early stages of development.