Fractures, dislocations, diseases and deformities of the bones of the trunk and upper extremities / by Hugh Owen Thomas.
- Hugh Owen Thomas
- Date:
- 1887
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Fractures, dislocations, diseases and deformities of the bones of the trunk and upper extremities / by Hugh Owen Thomas. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)
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![[Part III] 5 1 The difference noticeable between the real sufferer from inflamed shoulder-joint and the malingerer is that the first generally describes his feelings pat, with a long story; the latter wanders about with a shorter story, for the deficiency of which he compensates by plenty of facial expression of pain when points, not probably painful, are being compressed. The Treatment of Dropped Shoulder-Joints.— What is meant by a dropped joint ? This phrase is not of my intro- duction. It has been applied to a special defect of the wrist joint, and it is my intention to extend the use of the term to other regions suffering from a like defect. This condition I hold to be a mechanical one, although the cause may have been either physiological or mechanical or both. A joint which is more or less flaccid from nerve defect is not, in my opinion, a dropped joint but a paralysed one. During this defect, how- ever, certain muscular tissues become elongated, and occasion- ally their antagonists become slightly contracted. But when the nerve power has returned to the part, and the weaker of the two antagonistic muscles cannot be properly exercised, this is a dropped joint which has arisen from nerve defect, a cause which has ceased to operate. This muscular change is favoured either by position during the nerve defect or from the nerves, supplying the several sets of antagonistic muscles, not recovering contemporaneously as regards time or unequally in respect of power. The term dropped has been hitherto exclusively applied to a defect of the wrist. But it equally applies to a condition of the shoulder, elbow, finger,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21290118_0059.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
