Observations and experiments on a new mode of treating fractures of the leg and fore-arm : especially compound fractures / by William Beaumont.

Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations and experiments on a new mode of treating fractures of the leg and fore-arm : especially compound fractures / by William Beaumont. 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.

    12/32 (page 12)
    nor injurious: in fact it can be no more than that made by the bandage put around the limb previously to the incrusting of it in plaster of Paris. It is true that where the soft parts have been much bruised, inflammation may super- vene, disposing the limb to swell: in which case, I apprehend that gentle pressure made equally on every part of the limb from its very extremity, would rather tend to diminish than to augment inflammation. It would form an impediment to the passage of an increased quantity of blood into the vessels of the limb, whilst it could not at all obstruct the exit of blood from them: and such being the case, it would, (as it appears to me) be a means of lessening rather than of aggravating inflamma- tion. But should, however, the pressure be- come painful from a disposition on the part of the limb to swell, there could be no difficulty in removing the incrustation and bandage, and again putting up the limb with a degree of pressure on it which could be comfortably borne. It certainly would be more troublesome than the loosening of a pair of splints, but I believe, from the trials of the practice which I have made upon brutes, that it will be seldom or never necessary to meddle with a limb after the incrustation shall have been made around it.