The second volume of "Osteologia" - the proceedings of the annual meetings of the German Society for Osteology - differs from the first one in two ways. In contrast to the preceding one this issue is written in English. There had been good reasons for this decision but there had been equally good arguments against it by some board members. We therefore consider this to be a trial. Being aware of the difficulties to prepare a book not in one's mother tongue the editors only made minor corrections of the authors' con tributions. Having published with the first proceedings an overview of the various fields of research on osteology in our country, the conference of the German Society for Osteology now deals with special subjects and so will this conference report. The main heading of this book being "Generalized bone diseases." One chapter will deal with new developments in the field of osteology and another presents unusual cases presented at the meeting. Our hopes are that the efforts of the German Society for Osteology, the local organizers and the editors will find some acknowledgement. Our thanks are due to the authors for their contributions as well as to the publishing house."