Historical notes on the question of the value of traction in the treatment of hip disease / by A.B. Judson.

  • Judson, Adoniram Brown, 1837-1916.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Historical notes on the question of the value of traction in the treatment of hip disease / by A.B. Judson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The manuscript compilation above referred to was made in the course of an inquir}' as to which of the various opin- ions concerning traction expressed the correct explanation of its generally recognized good effects. The result of this inquiry—that is, the opinion which seemed to me correct— is noted in its appropriate place (pp. 20-22). Incidentally several points of interest came into view. For instance, the word extension, used to signify a drawing down or away, has given place to the less ambiguous word traction.* Again, we hear but little of late years of spon- taneous dislocation as a feature of hip disease. It was for- merly considered an extremely important incident of the late stage, an opinion challenged by Dr. Alden March, who declared that “ spontaneous dislocation of the hip (as pure- ly the result of morbid action unaided by superadded vio- lence) seldom or never takes place,” adding that his con- victions were “ based upon actual observation and personal examination of about forty pathological museums in this country and in Europe.” f Dr. George Hayward took the opposite side, saying: “ It would require more specimens than would fill forty, or forty thousand, pathological mu- seums to convince me that this [case related] was not a spontaneous dislocation of the femur.” t The merits of this rather nice question were presently lost in the interesting practical questions which arose when efficient and continuous traction became possible with the introduction of adhesive plaster as a means of grasping the limb. Traction then became useful, not to reduce disloca- tion, but to relieve pain and promote recovery. And, with the beginning of what may be called the adhesive plaster era, the effects of muscular contraction and measures for * See quotation below from Dr. Yale, p. 39, f Trans, of the Am. Med. Assoc, 1853, pp. 479, 480. if Surgical Reports, Boston, 1866, p. 77.