The apparatus used by the Greek and Romans in the setting of fractures and the reduction of dislocations.

  • Milne, John Stewart, 1871-
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The apparatus used by the Greek and Romans in the setting of fractures and the reduction of dislocations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It is a good, proper and natural mode of procedure, and has some- thing of display in it, if anyone take delight in such ostentatious methods. The patient is to be suspended from a crossbeam by the feet tied to- gether by a strong, soft and broad cord. The feet are to be about four inches or less from each other and a broad and soft leather collar also connected with the crossbeam, is to be put on above the knees, and the affected leg should be so extended as to be two inches higher than the other. The head should be about two cubits from the ground and the arm should be stretched along the sides, and bound with something soft. All these preparations should be made while he is lying on his back so that he may be suspended for as short a time as possible. When the patient is suspended a person properly instructed and not weak, having introduced his arm between his thighs is to place his forearm between the perineum and the dislocated head of the femur, and then, having joined the other hand to the one thus passed through the thighs, he is to stand by the side of the suspended patient and sud- denly suspend and swing himself in the air as perpendicularly as possible. In fracture of the humerus, if the bone be set while the elbow is extended, the muscles of the arm will assume a different position when the elbow is flexed. To set it in the flexed position, therefore, suspend a piece of wood like the handle of a spade from the roof by two chains one at each end. Place the patient’s arm over this, so that the bar lies in the axilla. Over the flexed forearm pass a shawl to which attach a great weight, so as to produce extension on the lower fragment of the humerus and thus reduce the deformity. Apply the waxed bandages and compresses in this position. The Pestle. Of reduction of the shoulder by means of the pestle,— an article for the preparation of food to be found in every Greek home,— Hippocrates says: “Those who accomplish the reduction by forcibly bending it over a pestle operate in a manner which is nearly natural. The pestle should be wrapped in a soft shawl for thus it will be less slippery. “It should be forced between the ribs and the head of the humerus. And if the pestle be short the patient should be seated on something, so that his arm can with difficulty pass over the pestle. “But, for the most part, the pestle should be longer, so that the pa- tient, when standing, may be almost suspended by it. And then the arm and forearm should be stretched along the pestle while some person secures the opposite side of the body by throwing the arms round the neck near the clavicle.” Hesiod (Works and Days, 1, 421) says that the length of the culinary pestle was three cubits.