Accidental injuries, their relief and immediate treatment : how to prevent accidents becoming more serious / by James Cantlie.

  • James Cantlie
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Accidental injuries, their relief and immediate treatment : how to prevent accidents becoming more serious / by James Cantlie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    63/116 (page 49)
    streets; and since policemen have been stationed at the corners of streets and crowded places, any hospital surgeon will tell you of the diminution in the number of street accidents concurrent with that change. On board ship their frequency is diminished from the lessened necessity of going aloft in modern times. Still the number of pre- ventable fractures is immense, and we must discuss them pretty fully if we are to understand what to do. Bones are broken in many ways, but amongst the legion of causes, it is possible to classify them under two heads : Direct fractures, as when a cart-wheel goes across the leg and breaks it at the part where it crossed. Indirect frac- tures, as, when lighting on the hands in trying to save one’s self when falling from a height, the collarbone is broken. A variety to be mentioned, also, is when bones break by the force of the action of muscles, as when the knee-cap is broken in attempting to jump, or on missing a step on the stair. Now when a fracture has occurred, no power on earth can by immediate treatment join the bones together at once; but by immediate action and treatment on the part of the bystanders or friends, a fracture which is simple at first may become in unskilled hands a much more dangerous accident, whereas in skilled hands it may be prevented from becoming worse. That is all that it is necessary for you to know, viz. how to prevent a broken bone giving rise to more serious trouble, it may be loss of limb or loss of life. Of course a doctor cannot be at the patient’s side imme- diately—that is, in half a minute—however close he live, and it may be hours before a medical man can reach the patient. It matters not whether it be five minutes or hours ; it is your duty to know what to do for these five minutes, because all the damage may be done, and generally is done, within that time. To understand the preventable occurrences that may follow on a broken bone, it is necessary to know the different kinds of fractures :— i A simple fracture is one in which a bone is simply [H. 2/.] £