I'm currently reading William Cheselden's book Osteographia or The Anatomy of the Bones, which was published in 1733 (for the pretty pictures, naturally; not up to date anatomy). When he addresses the topic of bone marrow, he says,
Every cylindrical bone has a large middle cavity, which contains an oily marrow, and a great number of lesser cells towards their extremities, which contain a bloody marrow. [...] The bloody marrow is also found in all spongy cells of the bones. [...] The use of the first kind of marrow I imagine is to soften, and render less brittle, the harder fibres of bones near which it is seated; and that the other marrow is of the same use to the less compact fibres, which the more oily marrow might have made to soft; and that for this reason, there is less of the oily marrow, and more of the bloody in young bones than in old ones.
Which strikes me as completely incorrect -- though correct me if I'm wrong. So, when was the purpose of marrow in hematopoiesis discovered, and by whom?
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