“Would it not, then, be to the interest of the profession to
examine into these cases and not obstinately to close their
eyes to facts, which, but for professional prejudice, would
not fail to see as clearly, and reason upon as logically as
common people do.
“I am, my dear sir,
“Yours very truly,
The publication of Dr. Wharton’s book, added to the published testimony
of so many patients, awakened the “faculty” to the knowledge that
after all there was something more than luck in the Bone-setter’s art.
The change of tone was however gradual, with occasional relapses
into the old line of thought, not by any means without misgiving.
When professional attention was publicly drawn to the subject many
instances came to light which showed that Bone-setters proceeded on
true scientific which were neglected by, if not unknown to the faculty
at large. As frequently happens the earliest instance of professional
adoption of the art of the “Bone-setter” occurred in America. After the
publication of Dr. Hood’s work. A correspondent of _Nature_[4] seeing
a review of the work wrote to describe an accident he met with, the
failure of the surgeons at New York to cure him, and his subsequent
cure by one he calls “a scientific Bone-setter” who, of course, was
not an “empiric,” though he adopted the practise of the Bone-setter’s
art. The correspondent in question, Mr. Joseph P. Thompson, who dates
from Berlin, May 22nd, states that more than _twenty_ years ago in the
city of New York, while swinging upon parallel bars in the gymnasium
fell backwards, and to save his head threw out his left arm, thus
catching the fall upon the palmar head of the radius, and as it proved
fracturing the head of the radius at the point of articulation with
the ulna. I sent for one of the most eminent surgeons (then professor
and surgeon) to a large hospital, but several hours elapsed before his
arrival, and by that time the swelling and inflammation of the elbow
had all the appearance of a sprain, and the fracture was not detected.
Some days afterwards the surgeon found out that there had been a
fracture, and that a false adhesion had begun. This was broken up, and
the arm set in splints, according to the approved method. After
the usual time the bandages were removed, but the forearm was incapable
of flexion, extension, or rotation. Every appliance was used to restore
it to its normal condition, such as lifting, friction, sponging, &c.,
but without effect. The arm became useless, and began to shrivel. It
was examined by the first surgeons in New York and other cities. Some
thought that the radius had adhered to the ulna, others that it was a
deposit of interosseous matter, but none could suggest a remedy. It
was some nine months after this, Mr Thompson goes on to say, that he
chanced to be in Philadelphia, and called upon Dr. Klea Barton, who,
though he had retired from practice, consented to look into the case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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