A MEDICAL WONDER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 767, 16 March 1910, Page 3

A MEDICAL WONDER.

"i 1- —— . MUSCLES TURNING. TO BONE. ■ An honoured guest at most of the Lon-' don hospitals is a tall, slim >mau, with-a thin face, who has to move about with extreme care, becauso if ho happened to fall down he might break in several places. Ho is literally., a' fragile man who has to walk with something of the stiffness of "La Poupee." A violent fall would be disastrous to him. He is suffering from a rare and painful disease which, in tho words of one of the doctors who have seen him, turns him into "a porcelain man." Alban Rushbrook, aged- thirty-five, has for seven years been .suffering from myositis ossificans. His muscles aro turning into bone. He can walk, but, ho cannot sit in a chair, and it is difficult for him to turn his head to right or left. Fortunately,. he takes his conditions very philosophically, and thoroughly enjoys his pipe. As a rare specimen he is well known in the London hospitals, and ho has many times been examined by tho conjoint Board of Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians. He has been to tho Middlesex Hospital, King's College Hospital, St. Thomas's Hospital, and St. George's Hospital. Tho inside of his chest, back, and thighs ark all turning to bone. He lies flat in bed. When ho desires to rise he is shifted to the edge of the bed, and his rigid body is .tipped up till his foot touch tho floor. A stick is placed in his hand, and he can then . make his way in a straight line ahead. "Great care has to be observed," says j a doctor. "Tho man might break o'iie of|, his 'ossified muscles just as he might an | ordinary bone. His body is becoming | more or less locked.' " j