Marble Bones

There are over 100 clinical reports of the peculiar condition called marble bones or Albers-Schonberg disease. 1 The original observation of Albers-Schonberg was made on a man 26 years old. Subsequent reports have described patients of all ages, from infancy to adult life. The only feature common to all of the reported cases is the roentgenographic observation of increased density, with loss of detail, of practically all bones of the skeleton. The changes in the blood are at variance; chemical studies made during life are few and incomplete, morphologic observations are rare, and chemical analyses of parts of the skeleton obtained post mortem are lacking. In a case which recently came under our observation circumstances permitted a detailed clinical, pathologic and chemical study. Since these data may contribute to a better understanding of the natural history of this disease, they are presented in some detail.