HENRY JACOB BIGELOW. 345 



case," the account of which seemed to many incredihle, and its mech- 

 anism beyond exphmatiou. The story was briefly this. A man 

 was ramming down a charge of powder in a hole drilled in a rock, 

 when the charge exploded, and the tamping iron — a short rouud bar 

 — was driven up through the side of his face, out at the top of his 

 head, breaking upward through the top of his skull as if it had 

 been pie-crust, .^hooting up into the air, and falling at some distauce. 

 Dr. Bigelow accepted the story as true, and undertook to show how 

 the bai" could have found its way up and out through the bones of the 

 face and skull, traversing the brain, and cutting one of the optic nerves 

 on its way. He prepared a skull to illustrate the course taken by the 

 implement. The subject of this extraordinary accident lived many 

 years, but an opportunity was found to inspect the injured parts 

 after death, and Dr. Bigelow's explanation of the accident was fully 



confirmed. 



In the midst of his scientific researches Dr. Bigelow never forgot 

 the practical aim and end of the healing art. Pie cared quite as much 

 for '' common sense" in a medical man as he did for scientific acquire- 

 ments ; indeed, he rather undervalued pure science as compared with 

 practical skill. His lectures are eminently practical, and most of his 

 scientific researches tend to some important curative purpose. No 

 man knew better than he what were the needs, and what should be 

 the training, of the young practitioner who would make his way m 

 the world ; and his Lecture on " Science and Success " gives some 

 of the best results of his wise experience. 



In 1.S69 he published his essay, " The Mechanism of Dislocation 

 and Fracture of the Hip." This subject had been long and diligently 

 studied by the great surgeons of tlie past, more especially by Sir 

 Astley Cooper. Dr. Bigelow threw new light upon the whole mat- 

 ter. I have requested Dr. Richard M. Hodges, who knew the his- 

 tory of Dr. Bigelow's researches more intimately than any other of 

 his pupils and assistants, to make a brief statement of the leading 

 points of his doctrine and practice in dislocations of the hip. The 

 following is his answer to my request : — 



" Hip Dislocations. — A\iho\xgh Winslow and Weitbrecht had de- 

 scribed the two fasciculi of the ilio-femoral ligament, or ligament of 

 Bertin, Dr. Bigelow first drew attention to the great strength of the 

 anterior part of the capsule of the hipjoint, and defined with preci- 

 sion the two bands of the abovenamed ligament, diverging like the 

 branches of an inverted Y. 



" Dr. Bisrelow showed that, so long as it remained unbroken in one 



