An essay on the treatment of compound and complicated fractures : being the annual address before the Massachusetts Medical Society, in Boston, U.S. America, May 28, 1845 / by William J. Walker.
- Walker, William J. (William Johnson), 1789-1865.
- Date:
- 1845
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An essay on the treatment of compound and complicated fractures : being the annual address before the Massachusetts Medical Society, in Boston, U.S. America, May 28, 1845 / by William J. Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![liberated upon it, and at length resolved to saw off a considerable portion of the bone, [according to Eig. 1 *; Pl. 16,] rather than instantly amputate the limb. We then snipped off the loose and tat¬ tered teguments, removed some sharp-pointed frag¬ ments of the bones, brought the parts into as good a state as we could, dressed in the common man¬ ner as lacerated wounds require, and placed the limb in a case of stiff paper, well lined with wool, tow, etc., and so contrived as to give as little dis¬ turbance to it as possible upon dressing; using the tailed bandage. ‘ The ivound soon digested kindly, and the cure was effected by the usual treatment, without any ill accident of consequence intervening, which favorable circum¬ stance ive ascribed to our precaution in removing the fragments and splinters of the bones, etc,, at our first dressing. 6 In about three weeks, I was sensible, as were also several surgeons whom curiosity led to see so uncommon a case, that the substance which grew in the space of five inches, entirely void of bone, had acquired, in the middle only, a greater degree of solidity than flesh; which circumstance, not agreeing with the general received notion of the generation of callus, we proved, beyond dispute, with a sharp pointed instrument; and we observed * As the plate merely represented the portion of tibia removed, five inches long-, it was deemed unnecessary to copy it.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30559583_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
