Medical testimony in regard to Dr. Davis's new mode of treating joint diseases.

  • Henry Gassett Davis
Date:
[1863?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical testimony in regard to Dr. Davis's new mode of treating joint diseases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ered as one of the greatest improvements in surgery that had been made within the last fifty years, anaesthesia alone excepted. Prof. Henry H. Smith, M.D., of Philadelphia, in a letter addressed to me, January 7th, 1862, writes of it as the best plan of treating the disease, and regards it, as above [before] stated, an improvement worthy of historical record as the improvement of this century in sur- gery. In the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter of November 23, 1861, p. 178, in a review of the transactions of the American Medical Association, by 0. C. Gibbs, M.D., he says: Perfect rest of the joint, and the removal of friction and pressure of the diseased sur- faces by means of extension, are really the all-important objects of treatment. As is generally known, Dr. EL G. Davis, (of New York City,) in the spring of 1860, devised [should be, published a full de- scription of,] an instrument, by means of which these ends could be accomplished, and the bedridden patient placed upon his feet without discomfort or injury. Dr. Sayre has modified this treatment, and,he thinks, greatly improved it. However, as the principles of its action are not altered, the honor of the invention belongs wholly to Dr. Davis. In a review of The Transactions of the American Medical Asso- ciation, published in the Noith American Medico-ChirurgicaI Review, page 1,017, Volume V., November, 1861, under the head of The Third and Last Paper, entitled Report on Morbus Coxarius, or Hip Disease, by Lewis A. Sayre, M.D., of New York City, the reviewer, after numerous extracts from the report, for the purpose apparent in the following, says: These quotations carry to the mind of the reader but one inference, and that is, that the writer of the report first suggested the treatment and devised the instrument, for he positively declares it. Let us see what this instrument is, and who devised it. To do this, let us turn to page 499, where the de- tails of a case commence, in the reading of which we arrive at a seeming solution. On page 507 we read a description of the instrument, which is, as we have seen, called his (Sayre's) splint; and we find it to consist of a steel strip, with means of attachment for extending and counter- extending bands, the latter of which is of rubber tubing. The writer goes on to give the directions as to the proper manner of applying the instrument, the style of applying the plaster, bandage, etc. But preceding it all, we fiud a plate introduced, under which is printed 1 H. G. Davis's Splint for Hip Disease, as manufactured by Otto & Reynders, 58 Chatham Street, N. Y., since 1855/ five years ago, accompauied by a full description, and the proper manner of applying it, and the style of applying the bandages, plaster, etc. The one is just like the other; there is not a single difference in any essential point, and all the directions, as given by the author of the report, are the same as those of the inventor of the original instrument, from whom the reporter learned the use and application of the instrument, as noticed in the quotations on the next page. Seeing this, we are led to examine a little more closely, aud we find on page 505, that in