y 
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‘PHYSICAL anp LITERARY. 351 
languid, hearfay manner, that it was 
‘plain they were as unpractifed in the 
cafe as the, gentlemen prefent: Nor was 
any better fuccefs to be expected from ° 
Galen’s * method of reducing a luxation of 
this joint by hanging the patient to a 
ftrong beam by the heels with his head 
near the ground. 
AFTER mature deliberation, it-was a- 
greed, that, in cafe the ufual extenfion 
did not fucceed, the vis percu!! onis (which 
is well known to increafe the force toa 
furprifing degree by accelerating the mo- 
tion) fhould next be tried. In order to 
both, therefore, we provided a large 
ftrong table, of a proper length and. 
height, which we faftened with {crews 
_to the floor, and covered with fuch blan- 
kets and bolfters as we wanted ; a piece 
of 
* Vid. Gal. in librum Hipp, de artic. commentarior, 
lib, 4 aph 42. 
And indéed the ancients feem to have been acquainted 
with luxations of the hip-joint only in children, or diflem- 
" pered bodies ; unlefs we fhall except Paulus Agineta, 
whofe various methods of extenfion, in this cafe, whe- 
_ ther real or fuppofed, fome of the moderns have copi- 
ed, and fome have altered, 
