Medical testimony in regard to the proper mechanical treatment of joint diseases.

  • Davis, Henry G. (Henry Gassett), 1807-1896.
Date:
[1862?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical testimony in regard to the proper mechanical treatment of joint diseases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    11/30
    that a proper treatment for the formidable disease was at last favor- ably introduced in the shape of the new splint. The splint he consid- ered as one of the greatest improvements in surgery that had been made within the last fifty years, anaesthesia alone excepted. Prof. Henry H. Smith, M.D., of Philadelphia, in a letter addressed to me, January 7th, 1862, writes of it as the best plan of treat- ing the disease, and regards it, as above [before] stated, an im- provement worthy of historical record as the improvement of this cen- tury in surgery. In the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter of November 23, 1861, p. 178, in a review of the transactions of the American Medical Association, by 0. C. Gibbs, M.D., he says: Perfect rest of the joint, and the removal of friction and pressure of the diseased sur- faces by means of extension, are really the all-important objects of treatment. As is generally known, Dr. H. G. Davis, (of New York City,) in the spring of 1860, devised [should be, published a full de- scription of,] an instrument, by meaus of which these ends could be ac- complished, and the bedridden patient placed upon his feet without discomfort or injury. Dr. Sayre has modified this instrument, and, he thinks, greatly improved it. However, as the principles of its action are not altered, the honor of the invention belongs wholly to Dr. Davis. In a review of The Transactions of the American Medical Asso- ciation, published in the North American Medico-Chirurgical Review, page 1,017, Volume Y., November, 1861, under the head of the third and last paper, entitled a Report on Morbus Coxarius, or Hip Disease, by Lewis A. Sayre, M.D., of New York City, the reviewer, after numerous extracts from the report, for the purpose apparent in the following, says: These quotations carry to the mind of the reader but one inference, and that is, that the writer of the report first suggested the treatment and devised the instrument, for he positively declares it. Let us see what this instrument is, and who devised it. To do this, let us turn to page 499, where the details of a case commence, in the reading of which we arrive at a seeming solution. On page 507 we read a description of the instrument, which is, as we have seen, called his (Sayre's) splint; and we find it to consist of a steel strip, with means of attachment for extending and counter- extending bands, the latter of which is of rubber tubing. The writer ffoes on to give the directions as to the proper manner of applying the instrument, the style of applying the plaster, bandage, etc. But preceding it all, we find a plate introduced, under which is printed