Bone-setting, so-called, and The treatment of sprains / by R. Dacre Fox.

  • Fox, R. Dacre.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bone-setting, so-called, and The treatment of sprains / by R. Dacre Fox. 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.

    7/20 (page 5)
    I purpose chiefly to consider that class of cases to which Mr. A-dams and Mr. Marsh have more particularly referred. Dr. Hood (loc. cit.) has make out a somewhat extensive list of causes for stiff or weak joints, but I think he had in his mind rather what was UMt/ to come to the bone-setter than what actually did come. From my own experience I should classify weak joints as follows:— 1. Those that have become stiff from enforced rest. 2. Those that have become stiff from chronic disease. 3. Joints stiff from injury to the bones entering into their formation. 4. Joints stiff and weak from sprains, including displacement of tendons and partial luxation. Apart from the previous history of the case, and the evident existence of constitutional disease, there are some external appear- ances which help to distinguish cases and to afford indications for treatment, and of these the bone-setters have learned by experience to avail themselves. 1. In the first class I have mentioned, the stiffness of the structures about the joint impeding its movements is the result of purely mechanical causes, is in fact simply due to prolonged disuse. No cause for functional activity exists, and consequently the elasticity, the flexibility, and power of adaptation to move- ment in the parts about the joints not being required, they become stiff and rigid. No degenerative changes, however, take place, and they are capable of being recalled into activity unim- paired. In such a joint the bony poiiits and the outlines of the ten- dons and ligaments about it seem unnaturally prominent, probably from absorption of the adipose and connective tissue; the rigid ligaments impart a sense of hardness, and if the limb be flexed to its utmost it shows considerable resiliency. Such joints may, I believe, be cracked up without fear of consequences, and so constitute one of the successful operations of Bone-setting. My own recollection carries me back to some apparently almost marvellous results. I am convinced that suddenness ought to be insisted upon in doing this; the advantages derived from it being.