On certain principles and methods in the surgical treatment of the paralysis of children : being an address delivered before the Huddersfield Medical Society / by Robert Jones.

  • Jones, Robert, 1857-1933.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On certain principles and methods in the surgical treatment of the paralysis of children : being an address delivered before the Huddersfield Medical Society / by Robert Jones. 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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    therefore, should know the theory of his subject, and be able definitely to direct practically the mechanical details which are the accompaniment of all operative aid. What would we think of a physician who, having made a diagnosis, leaves his unfortunate patient in the hands of a chemist, who is asked to administer what he thinks to be an appropriate drug ? And yet this is not a travesty, but the grim experience of hundreds of paralytic cripples in this country. They pay their consultation fees, and are then despatched to the instrument maker who is merely desired in the most general terms to fit on a “ suitable ” appliance. Is it any wonder, therefore, that quackery abounds, and that the unfortunate patient is, so long as money lasts, relegated to suits of armour bristling with screws and ratchets ? The treatment of paralytic deformities is both mechanical and operative. The one is inseparable from the other, and the surgeon who is not a mechanic is little better than the old orthopaedic surgeon who, without any operative education, looked upon a complicated splint as the universal panacea. To the late Mr. H. O. Thomas belongs the credit of having preached the gospel of simplicity as applied to splints. In paralytic affections, his only imple- ment was a tenotome, and yet so skilful was he in mechanical resource that he rarely failed to rectify the most obstinate deformity. From him I learned the value of rest in restoring power to overstrained muscular fibre, and the immense importance of