Medical evidence in railway accidents / by John Charles Hall.

  • Hall, John Charles, 1816-1876.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical evidence in railway accidents / by John Charles Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/64 (page 43)
    Copter £VT. Fractures and Dislocations. Fractures of the Bibs often serious.—Fractures of the Spine: Local and General Symptoms.— Dislocations 0/ the Spine. —Dislocations of the Cervical Vertebnv, generally accom- panicJ with Fracture.—Case of Karon Jhipuiftren.— Fractures of the Upper and Lower Jaw Bones, d'-c. Since the publication of my papers on Railway Accidents, in The British Medical Journal, numerous questions have been asked me with regard to fractures and dislocations caused by collisions on a railway. Fractures of the arm, fore-arm, thigh, leg, hand, foot, &c, do not differ from simple or compound fractures of these bones from other causes. Fractures of the ribs, especially when two or more are broken, are very commonly serious, being not unfrequently co-existent with severe injuries to the brain and spinal chord. Fractures of the spine are always serious ; for from their structure, the bodies of the vertebrae cannot be broken without considerable violence. The blow which is of sufficient force to fracture the spine must produce more or less of concussion. Consequently, the mischief done to the spinal chord at the time of the accident is much more likely to produce perilous consequences than even the fracture of the bones.* The spinous processes which project backwards are the weakest parts, the most superficially situated, and * Note.—Fractures of the spine are usually the result of a direct violent blow on the back; of a fall on the head, the body at the same time being- forcibly bent forwards ; or of a gunshot injury.