Medical testimony in regard to the proper mechanical treatment of joint diseases.

  • Davis, Henry G. (Henry Gassett), 1807-1896.
Date:
1862
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical testimony in regard to the proper mechanical treatment of 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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    Dr. Gurdon Buck remarked, (Bulletin, Vol. I., page 201; Ameri- can Medical Times, No. 18, Vol. II.,) 1 will merely say in regard to this particular mode of treatment introduced by Dr. Davis, that it is in constant use at the St. Luke's Hospital, and has been for nearly a year. We have also several cases in progress in children. We have always regarded it as an admirable mode of treatment, and we see the best effects from it. It has been borne with a great deal of comfort. Those who are brought in in the acute stage, scarcely allowing you to touch them, after the application of the weight and pulley for twenty- four or forty-eight hours, are almost entirely relieved of pain. The effect of this relief upon the patients is to improve their general condition. The treatment is being fully tested there, with satisfactory results. Dr. Joiix Watson, referring to the treatment by the old mode of extension with the long splints compared with mine, said, (Bulletin, Vol. I., p. 204; American Medical Times, No. 19, Vol. II.,) From the very hour 1 read Harris's paper, I have always looked upon it as the best plan of treatment, until the new mode introduced by Dr. Davis came into use, which I highly approve. Prof. Raphael (Bulletin, Vol. I., p. 224; American Medical Times,) did not think it made a great difference, as far as the treatment of the disease was concerned, that all the vexed questions in relation to the pathology should be discussed at such length. It seemed to him that a proper treatment for the formidable disease was at last favor- ably introduced in the shape of the new splint, The splint he consid- ered as oue of the greatest improvements in surgery that had been made within the last fifty vears, anaesthesia alone excepted. Prof. Henry H. Smith.'M.D., of Philadelphia, in a letter addressed to me, January 1th, 1802, writes of it as the best plan of treat- ing the disease, and regards it, as above [before] stated, an im- provement worthy of historical record as the improvement of this cen- tury in surgery. 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 O. 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. H. G. Davis, (of New York City,) in the spring of I860, devised [should be, published a full de- scription of,] an instrument, by means of which these ends could be ac- complished, and the bedridden patient placed upon his feet without discomfort or injury. Dr. Sayre has modified this instrument, and, he thinks, greatly improved it. However, as the principles of its action arc 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 North American Medico-ChirurgicaI Review, page 1,017, Volume V., November, 181)1, under the head of the third and last paper, entitled a Report on Morbus Coxarins, or Hip Disease, by Lewis A. Sayre, M.D., of New York City, the reviewer, alter numerous extracts from the report, for the purpose apparent in the following, says: These quotations carry to the mind cl the reader hut one inference, and that is, that the writer of