An essay on the treatment of compound and complicated fractures : being the annual address before the Massachusetts Medical Society, May 28, 1845 / by William J. Walker.

  • Walker, William Johnson, 1789-1865.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the treatment of compound and complicated fractures : being the annual address before the Massachusetts Medical Society, May 28, 1845 / by William J. Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    liberated upon it, and at length resolved to saw off a considerable portion of the bone, [according to Fig. 1^; PI. 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 mto 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 luied with wool, tow, etc., and so contrived as to give as Uttle dis- turbance to it as possible upon dressmg; using the tailed bandage. ' The wound soon digested Idndly, and the cure was effected hy the usual treatment, ivithout any ill accident of consequence intervening, ivhich favorable circum- stance we ascribed to our precaution in removing the fragments and splinters of the bones, etc., at our first dressing. ' Li about three weeks, I was sensible, as were also several surgeons whom curiosity led to see so uncommon a case, that the substance wliich 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 caUus, we proved, beyond dispute, with a sharp pointed instrument; and we observed * As llie plate merely represcnled the portion of tibia removed, five inches long, it was deemed unnecessary to copy it.