On bone-setting (so called), and its relation to the treatment of joints crippled by injury, rheumatism, inflammation, &c. &c / by Wharton P. Hood.

Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On bone-setting (so called), and its relation to the treatment of joints crippled by injury, rheumatism, inflammation, &c. &c / by Wharton P. Hood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the full extent that the fulcrum finger will allow. It is then with a continuous movement brought back to a state of half flexion, and in that position is abducted, and then adducted, to the limited natural extent of these movements in a healthy joint. It is then straightened, and the momentary operation is complete. The patient, in a properly selected case, will im- mediately be able to flex and extend the joint without pain, and must be encouraged to bring it into moderate use immediately. It is quite plain that to keep it still at rest, or to put it upon a splint, would be to allow the adhesions to re-unite, and all the former troubles to be restored. The metacarpo-phalangeal articulations are treated precisely as the phalangeal, with the single difference that the larger size of the proximal bone enables the operator to grasp it with the tips of two fingers on the palmar aspect, while its relation to its fellows renders the forefinger unavailable as a transverse fulcrum. The natural movements of abduction and adduc-
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