“The history he gave me was, that on the 11th of April, 1801, after having been at sea seven months, his arm was fractured by a heavy sea breaking over the ship. Nothing was done for his relief until next day, when the captain and mate bound it up, and applied splints over it. No swelling supervened, nor did he suffer any pain, Three weeks after this accident, he arrived at Alexandria, when the state of the arm was examined by a physician, who told him, that the ends of the bone were not in a proper situation. After making an extension, the splints and bandages were again applied. He remained in Alexandria four months, when, finding his arm no stronger, he left off all dressings, and went on board the New-York frigate as steward: in this capacity he remained near the Federal City six months, and by being under the necessity of using his arm as much as possible, he found the connexion between the ends of the bones became looser and looser, till, at length, the arm bent as easily as if a new joint had been formed at the place of the fracture. From the frigate he went to Baltimore, where an attempt was made by machinery to extend the arm, and keep the ends of the bone in apposition, by continuing the extension. Under this treatment he remained two months, but experiencing no benefit, he was advised to come to Philadelphia. “On examining the arm, I found that the humerus had been fractured about two inches and a half above the elbow joint, and that the ends of the bone had passed each other, about an inch: the lower fragment, or that nearest the elbow, was situated over, and on the outside of the upper portion of the bone. The connexion that existed between the ends of the humerus was so flexible, as to allow of motion in every direction, and by forcible extension, the lower end might be pulled down considerably, but never so low as to be on a line with the end of the upper extremity. He was admitted into the Pennsylvania hospital, the latter end of May; but the weather becoming very hot, it was judged best to defer any operation that might be necessary, until the fall of the year. Unfortunately he then contracted a bilious fever, of which he was so ill, that his life was despaired of for some days. From this fever his recovery was so slow, that it was not thought proper to perform any operation until December. It still remained to decide, by what means a bony union of the humerus, might most probably be effected. In the year 1785, when a student, I had seen a case in our hospital, similar to this in every essential circumstance, in which an incision was made down to the extremities of the fractured bone, which were then sawed off, thereby putting the parts into the condition of a recent compound fracture. No benefit, however, was derived from this painful operation, and some months afterward the arm was amputated. This case had made a strong impression on my mind, and rendered me unwilling to perform a similar operation.