63. But that illustrious practitioner, in recommending this salutary remedy, has erred with regard to the mode in which it operates. To consume, by degrees, a superabundant callus in the interior of the articulation, and thus reduce it to a level with the articulating surfaces, is not, as he conceives, the effect which these motions produce. This opinion, founded on the ancient doctrine of an osseous juice, is refuted by the dissection of many bodies of patients that died during the treatment, and in which Desault discovered no trace, either of an effusion of osseous juice, during the reunion, or of its superabundance after this reunion had been completed. The exercise communicated to the limb, appears to act principally by removing the congestion of the tendons and membranes surrounding the joint, which, being at first irritated by the fracture, are thrown into a state of _engorgement_; and further by dissipating a kind of numbness which affects the muscles after they have remained too long in a state of rest. 64. But whatever may be its mode of action, it ought to be gradually increased, according to the state of the parts, and continued for at least twenty days, a period sufficiently long to restore to the limb, in general, its natural motions. 65. It is seldom that after this methodical treatment, the patient is exposed to an anchylosis, a thing inevitable in such cases, according to most authors, A celebrated surgeon, believing the long continued extension of the fore-arm to be the cause of this accident, has advised here to abandon every kind of bandage, and to commit the cure entirely to nature. But this doctrine, contrary to the general principles of the reunion of divided parts, has not in its favour the result of experience, which proves that, under such neglect, the stiffness in the parts near to the joint is always as great as in other cases, that the reunion is more tedious and more deformed, and that sometimes it cannot be accomplished at all. The analogy of the inconveniences and disadvantages attributed to the method of Foubert, in fractures of the neck of the os femoris, constitutes another argument against this method, which is now almost entirely abandoned. 66. To the cases already published, proving the success of that which we have proposed, let us add one more, reported by Maublanc. CASE IV. Silvan de la Noue, aged thirty, fell on his elbow, having his fore-arm bent, while the shoulder of the same side supported a heavy load. Acute pains at the instant of the fall; a sudden inability to extend the fore-arm; a considerable swelling appears almost immediately, around the joint; and a superficial echymosis at the hind part. During the night the pains were augmented, the swelling increased, and, on the day following, February 9th, 1791, the patient was received into the Hotel-Dieu.