On coxalgia, or hip disease / by Alden March.

  • March, Alden, 1795-1869.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On coxalgia, or hip disease / by Alden March. 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.)

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    in which there is an anchylosis of the hip-joint—one of the two out of nearly two hundred specimens of hip disease I have examined, that would favour the doctrine of spontaneous dislocation. In this instance, the head of the bone was not much altered in shape or diminished in size, while it rested on the margin of the upper and back part of the acetabulum, slightly projecting over a pretty deep and rough acetabulum, where it had become anchylosed by bony deposit. Sir Astley Cooper, in his Treatise on Dislocations and Fractures of the Joints, under the head of Dislocation from Ulceration, says:— Dislocations may arise from ulceration, by which the ligaments are detached, and the bones become altered in their form. We fre- quently find this state of the parts in the hip-joint; the ligaments ulcerated, the edge of the acetabulum absorbed, the head of the thigh-bone changed both in its magnitude and figure, escaping from the acetabulum upon the ilium, and there forming for itself a new socket. It will be observed, that here the doctrine of spontaneous dislocation of the hip-joint is recognized and taught by the highest and most weighty surgical authority of modern times. For many years, I have looked upon the writings of Sir Astley Cooper as the most reliable of any in the English language. He was my oracle; and I almost venerated the man for the clear, con- cise, and honest manner in which he was accustomed to present his views on the various subjects of surgical science. He never appeared to be at a loss for an appropriate case for the illustration of his subject; nor did he appear to be satisfied with a mere superficial examination of the subject under investigation. His deductions and conclusions were commonly founded on anatomical and pathological demonstrations. Nevertheless, with all this rare combination of a variety of talents, it is possible that even a great and a good man may be mistaken. To illustrate the subject of spontaneous dislocation, Mr. Cooper gives the following case. He says: Mr. White, of Parliament Street, had under his care a patient in the Westminster Hospital, who was the subject of dislocation of the os femoris on the dorsum of the ilium, from ulceration. He sawed off the head of the femur, and the patient was restored to a very useful motion of the limb. With regard to the formation of a new socket, as asserted by Mr. Cooper, and as repeated by Mr. Liston, I have already stated such pathological objections as seem to me conclusive against the doctrine of the formation of a new joint. And, besides, in all the specimens