Useful hints to those who are afflicted with ruptures : on the nature, cure, and consequences of the disease ; and on the empirical practices of the present day / by T. Sheldrake.
- Sheldrake, Timothy, active 1783-1806
- Date:
- 1804
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Useful hints to those who are afflicted with ruptures : on the nature, cure, and consequences of the disease ; and on the empirical practices of the present day / by T. Sheldrake. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![curable; but that otliers may remain in a condition to be *' cured, till the age of ten, eleven, or twelve years old, and even to much later periods of life. These observations being made on that species of club-foot that occurs before birth, the author comcy next to those which happen afterwards. Here he also olFers many remarks, and gives different practical direc- tions. We have likewise some cases in illustration of the positions. In recent distortions of the knee-joints, Mr. S. tells us, P. 174,—That '* two operations are requisite to effect a cure, viz. to replace the bones in their natural relative position ; and to retain them there, till the liga- ** ments and tendons connected with thei:nee-joint, have *' recovered their natural power of supporting the weight *' of the body properly on the legs. In recent cases, where the distortion has been *' brought on suddenly, or at least quickly, by debilit}-, ** the reduction will be easily effected ; for the same debi- *' litated state of the parts that has occasioned them to give way. Mall not oppose any obstacle to any rational attempts to return the legs to their natural form, and and tlien time, with the assistance of cold baths, &c. will enable them to recover, perfectly, their natural *' functions. But when, from length of time the disease has existed, age of the patient, or any other circumstance, the parts have become rigid or contracted, it will require *' considerable caution to reduce them to their natural position; but still it is possible to do so. As the degree of relaxation requisite to produce *'< this distortion is not great, so the degree of rigidity or *' contraction necessary to retain it in its worst form, is not greater than the relaxation which occasioned it. *' From this view of the subject, and from what we know *' of the effects of mechanical action upon tendinous con- << tractions, it is not too much to conclude, there are few, if any cases, even in adults, that are absolutely *« incurable ] and from a knowledge that the mode of *« treatment I have invented may be adopted to every pos- *' sible case, it would, perhaps, not be unwarrantable to << conclude, that every case, which in its nature is not »' incinabie, may be cured by it. As the real value of every discovery or improvement is shown by the practical result, we have little hesitation in saying](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21467493_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
