Colles's fracture / by J.F. Knott.

  • Knott, John, 1853-1921.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Colles's fracture / by J.F. Knott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of the wrist and metacarpus, the fulness of the anterior surface of the forearm limited below by the anterior annular ligament of the wrist, and apparently caused by the flexor tendons being thrown forwards, and the projection of the lower end of the ulna towards the palm and inner side, to a degree varying in different instances. The lower end of this bone can also be moved backwards with abnormal facility; but an examination of the radius at the seat of fracture fails to detect either crepitus or yielding of the fragments till extension is made, so as to restore the limb to its natural form, when a backward and forward movement will be found to cause a sensible yielding of the broken surfaces. The inward projection of the lower end of the ulna he attributed to the pressure of the upper end of the carpal fragment of the radius, the yielding of the other bone being facilitated by laceration of the ligaments of the inferior radio-ulnar articulation. Such is Colies’s account of his own fracture. Imperfect it of course is, but for an original description Ave cannot but admire the sagacity with which he appreciated, and the happy simplicity and clearness of language with which he detailed, the diagnostic value of the local signs of this lesion. The teaching of Pouteau in France, and of Colles in this country, was comparatively neglected till the subject was revived by Dupuytren, and by R. W. Smith, and it is indeed to the widespread influence of the opinions and writings of these eminent surgeons that may chiefly be attributed the prominence which has been accorded in the literature of the profession since their time to the consideration of this, the most frequent—at least, according to some authorities—of the fractures that have been met with in the human skeleton. While Colles had contented himself with pointing out the comparative frequency of fracture, and the rare occurrence of dislocation, Dupuytren went so far as to doubt—although not of course absolutely deny—the possibility of the occurrence of a luxation occurring at the radio-carpal articulation; and