On the true principle of treatment in joint diseases / by Charles F. Taylor.
- Charles Fayette Taylor
- Date:
- 1870
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the true principle of treatment in joint diseases / by Charles F. Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
5/6 page 485
![1870.] By Charles F. Taylor, M.D. tive power there may be even in a depraved constitution, if we give the organ in a state of acute inflammation absolute rest. I remember hearing an eminent surgeon at a medical con¬ vention—they were discussing cystitis—say, “If ever I am attacked with inflammation of the bladder I hope some one will have sense enough to puncture it, so that my poor bladder may have rest.” Anything is safer than the constant effort of an inflamed organ. The modern or what is called by a late writer in Paris the “American method” of securing rest to an injured and inflamed articulation by mechanical means, re¬ sponds directly to the indications of those cases. Caries and suppuration are the effects of unarrested inflammations. These inflammations should not be allowed to proceed so far. Out of one hundred and eighty-three private cases only tivo passed into the suppurative stage. To allow a case of disease of the spine or hip joint to pass on beyond the period of simple inflammation when the disease can be arrested as easily as inflammation can be arrested in any other part, is a plain neglect of duty to the patient. To be sure, it is not always easy to contrive the me¬ chanical means, nor to properly apply them so as fully to rea¬ lize the rest to the inflamed joint we seek; but so much at least should be attempted; and if possessed with earnestness, and with a full realization of the true pathology of such cases, and the benefit to be secured to the patient by it, no one ought to fail of making an effort in the right direction. And as to mechanical appliances, better trust to his own clear conception of the case, and the means to accomplish the result, than to depend on ignorant mechanics, who will be apt to confuse and thwart the first endeavors of the surgeon. An ingenious sur¬ geon can whittle with his pocket-knife from a fence rail, if he clearly comprehends what he wants, a better hip-joint splint or spinal instrument than nine-tenths of those for sale in the shops. But, whatever the appliance employed, that is best which actually gives the completest rest to the inflamed organ, and keeps that rest steadily and undisturbed for the longest time. But as the best appliances are the results of the clearest con¬ ception of the true nature of the disease, these appliances become very important considerations.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30570499_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
