On bone-setting (so called), and its relation to the treatment of joints crippled by injury, rheumatism, inflammation, &c. &c / by Wharton P. Hood.

Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On bone-setting (so called), and its relation to the treatment of joints crippled by injury, rheumatism, inflammation, &c. &c / by Wharton P. Hood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    here, in the first place, I must bear tribute to Mr. Hutton's perfect good faith and honesty. He had received but a plain education, was entirely desti- tute of anatomical knowledge, and firmly believed the truth of his ordinary statement that the joint was out. To him there was no other possible explanation of a constantly recurring sequence of events. A joint previously stiff, painful, and help- less, was almost instantly restored to freedom of action by his handling, and the change was often attended by an audible sound, which he regarded as an evidence of the return of a bone to its place. When this, to him, pleasant noise was heard, he would look in his patient's face and say, in his broad dialect, Did ye hear that V The reply would be Yes and his rejoinder, Now ye're all right—use your limb. To the patient, probably as ignorant of anatomy as Mr. Hutton himself, who had hobbled to him on crutches, often after prolonged surgical treatment, and who went away walking and leaping, it can be no matter for surprise that the explanation was also fully sufficient.