Description of an apparatus intended to facilitate the treatment of fractures of the lower extremity / [Thomas Michael Greenhow].

  • Greenhow, T. M. (Thomas Michael), 1791-1881.
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of an apparatus intended to facilitate the treatment of fractures of the lower extremity / [Thomas Michael Greenhow]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    • • Vll operation, during its progress towards recovery.— It forms a part of an ever-acting mechanical en¬ gine made up of levers, pulleys, and moving forces of very considerable power, which the will of the individual mind, whose organ it is, becomes una¬ ble to command in consequence of the altered re¬ lation of its parts. The severed portions of bone are acted upon by these forces, as well as by posi¬ tion and weight, in a manner that can only be counteracted by mechanical forces of equal or su¬ perior power; and why, after the experience of ages has proved that one set of mechanical agents is unequal to this end, the assistance of one yet more powerful should be rejected, the Author con¬ fesses himself unable to discover. The screw, it is true, is a mechanical agent of nearly unlimited power, but it is also one capable of the most exact and delicate adjustment; and it is these two properties which render it so pecu¬ liarly fitted to fulfil, in the most perfect manner, the several indications of treatment in cases of fracture. The superior qualities which it posses¬ ses over the hands of several assistants, which rarely act with a tolerable degree of consent or co¬ operation, will be readily acknowledged by those