On the treatment of fractures of the limbs.

  • Gamgee, Sampson, 1828-1886.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of fractures of the limbs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    yet in 1847 one of tlie most erudite surgeons of any epocli tlius wrote in an elaborate treatise on frac- tures, (Malgaigne, Fractures, p. 218.) Les attelles de carton avant la dessiccation sent mouillees, con- sequemment incapables d'agir; apres la dessiccation, elles sent parfaitement inutiles. I think it would be extremely difficult, in the whole range of surgical literature, to adduce a more glaring instance of beg- ging the question, on the basis of a purely imaginary pre-occupation directly contrary to the results of experience. The study of a subject so important and compli- cated is necessarily rendered much more difficult by the contradictory teaching of eminent surgeons, of which I have just adduced a few examples from the multitude at hand. Happily we know that truth cometh sooner out of error than out of chaos. In this instance the true doctrine is abeady ascertained, but it requires larger exposition than it has yet received,—^the collection of its scattered elements into a body,—the elimination of the errors with which it is interwoven;—^in fact, a serious and tho- rough examination of the whole question of. the treatment of fractures is what is wanted. The know- ledge to be found in sui'gical text books on the causes and signs of fractures is abundant, and, for the most part, good and reliable. The treatment is the defec-