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

  • Davis, Henry G. (Henry Gassett), 1807-1896.
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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    the joints, are strongly insisted on The special treatment under con- sideration was again taken up at the conclusion of 'A Case of Pott's Disease, with Remarks on Morbus Coxarius, etc.,' Monthly, Novem- ber, 1859; and also in the 'New York Journal of Medicine,'1 lor the same month, (Nov., 1859,) in an article on 'The Effects of Pressure upon the Ulcerated Vertebra;, and in Morbus Coxarius, and the Re- lief afforded by Mechanical Remedies, with Cases.' Finally, in April, 1860, he published 'On the Mechanical Means adopted in the Treatment of Morbus Coxarius. By H. G. Davis, M. D ( With a Plate!) From this full and able paper we quote: ' I have delayed bringing the subject of this paper before the profession until time had given me an opportunity, not only to overcome any minor difficulties that might arise, but to test its application, and compare the results with the modes heretofore practiced. It is an unfortunate circumstance that so many new things are hurried before the profession in a crude state, to be condemned or die of neglect, when they could have been highly useful if the inventor or discoverer had taken time to digest and ma- ture his plans, and then apply them until all objections or difficulties should be overcome.' ' Muscular contractions perform an important part in the destruction of a joint/ and ' elastic extension is the true and philosophical method of overcoming muscular contraction.' He tell us he has 'invented an apparatus for applying these principles to diseased hip, knee, and other joints,' ' a method of treating this dis- ease [morbus coxarius] which I have pursued for twelve years; and as it lias never been [thoroughly] brought before the profession, it becomes necessary to describe it minutely/ Then follows a lengthy description of the instrument, its application, &c, &c. We should also here notice that he has introduced, with the instrument, an im- portant arrangement of material for all surgical purposes, viz., corru- gated cast steel, giving strength with lightness. Thus, surgery is indebted to Dr. Davis not only for the invention of an apparatus really yet unimproved upou, but also for the intro- duction of a method of. treatment based on the true pathology of the disease, and the principles upon which successful treatment depends in all its stages. The essential parts of the apparatus are, simply, means of exerting a continuous extending force on one side, and a resisting, counter-ex- tending one on the other. Many persons cannot comprehend in what really consists the difference between Dr. Davis's apparatus and some of the means previously employed, because the word extension misleads them. They do not make the distinction between the force that fix- edly sustains a limb in a position previously more or less extended, and the force that is actually extending all the time; i. e., that exerts a constant pulling power, instead of merely preventing immovably the retrocession of pulling previously exerted. Now this continued or 'elastic'extension, as, merely to distinguish it, it might be called, ges of the application of the principle to fractures. See American Medical Times, and Transactions of the New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. II., Part VII., p. 233.