The use of the glossocoma to rejoin a dislocated joint. Etching by J. Bell after Oribasius.

"Was the thigh bone luxated or fractured? Then they converted the ladder into a temporary bed, tied the patient's arms down close by his side, and his body to.the bars of the ladder, fixed the organon, the machine (whether glossocoma or plinthium), to the lowest round of the ladder, and then proceeded, by the help of this rude tackle, to extend. the thigh. This is the operation which I have represented in the 4th drawing; and always, whether the hip or the jaw bone was broken or luxated, whether the patient was to stand or lie, whether he was to be put to the rack on the ladder, over the top of a door, on the floor, or on a bed, the glossocoma was some way or other fixed near him, and was of no use till it was fixed."--Bell, op. cit. p. 607