These splints are easily applicable to the shoulder or hip-joints; and, in the majority of instances, nothing further requires to be done. It appears that Dr. Physick of Philadelphia had been for many years in the habit of confining the motions of the hip-joint by means of hollowed wooden splints, and his practice was marked by very favourable results.[9] It is seldom that local abstraction of blood is at all required, and its employment in cases of morbus coxarius in weak constitutions, which it generally seizes upon, is very questionable. Neither is counter-irritation called for; and it is only in extreme cases, when the suffering is intense, that small blisters over the fore part of the joint, or a slight drain in that situation, or behind the trochanter, is admissible. The nitrate of silver rubbed on the surface causes vesication and discharge; and its early repetition is often followed by good effects. The tincture of iodine, or a liniment containing sulphuric acid, may sometimes be applied with the same view. There is no doubt whatever, that much of the benefit that attends upon counter-irritation, both in the human body and in the lower animals, is to be attributed to the rest that is at the same time enjoined, and often indispensable. It is thus that the firing and blistering of horses does good in the majority of the diseases of tendons, bursæ, bones, and joints. In some instances, it may be necessary to have recourse to soothing applications, as fomentations to affected joints, and to employ general antiphlogistic means suited to the age, strength, and constitution of the patient. In the greater number of cases in young subjects, after the stomach and bowels are unloaded, the system must be supported by tonics and nutritious food; none are more beneficial than the preparations of iron. When the occurrence of anchylosis affords the only hope, this process ought to be encouraged by rest, and the limb at the same time kept in that position which will be most useful in after life; this will be effected here also by the employment of splints. In cases of disease of the knee, ankle, elbow, or wrist joints, notwithstanding everything that can be done, the disease often runs its course, abscesses form and give way, the patient’s health declines, and he becomes emaciated and hectic. In such cases amputation, when not contraindicated by internal disease, must be had recourse to, as the only remedy. In some few instances, the excision of the diseased extremities of the bones may supersede this operation; but this will be discussed in a future part of the work. Every circumstance must be well weighed before mutilation be resorted to; and there can be little doubt that thousands of limbs have been saved by the employment of the means above mentioned, which would have been otherwise doomed to amputation.