CASE VII. A man, having fractured his thigh by a fall, called in a surgeon, who, reducing the fracture, and retaining it by this bandage, examined the state of the parts every day, and finding no derangement of the splints, neglected attending to the rollers destined for making extension. Seventh day, a shortening of two inches; a new reduction, and a new application of the bandage; the same want of attention as before; the same shortening at the expiration of a few days; the means were then rejected, and declared, in a publication, to be insufficient. How often do processes and modes of practice of great utility, by being transmitted from person to person, or from book to book, lose at length, that credit they are entitled to, and that approbation which they ought to command! 114. Serious accidents so seldom accompany fractures of the neck of the os femoris, that there is no necessity of employing numerous means to remove them. A diet somewhat strict for a few days, diluting drinks, and then a return to the patient’s usual mode of living, unless something besides the fracture should forbid it, constituted the simple treatment pursued by Desault in common cases. Any varieties resulting from accidental circumstances, must fall under the general treatment of fractures. 115. The period necessary for the healing of fractures of the neck of the os femoris, is represented by most authors as being longer than the term required in other similar affections. We read, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Surgery, that oftentimes the cure is not complete in less than three or four months. The reason of this will be evident, if we consider, on the one hand, that the reunion is always more tedious, in proportion as the contact of the fragments is more frequently interrupted: and, on the other, that, in the means formerly employed, there was nothing opposed to the powers of displacement. Hence it follows, that, if skilfully treated, this fracture ought to follow nearly the same course with others. It is this that confirmed the superior excellence of the practice of Desault, who almost always obtained a cure, all other things being equal, such as age, strength of constitution, &c. in the space of forty-five or fifty-five days.