(42) HISTORY of the SOCIETT. 



Accoun-f " I HAVE paid particular attention to this fubiedl, and I have 



W.Hamilton. ' ' . 



always found, that where the womb was niverted, where the 

 placenta was retained, or where much flooding followed the 

 birth, the child had been born, head and body at once, by a 

 iingle pain. An attention to this point, procured Dr Hunter 

 part of the fame which he fo juflly polTefTed, on account of his 

 flcill and caution in midwifery. He has often told me, that 

 many women had been under his care, who, with other pradli- 

 tioners had loft much blood, and been expofed to much danger, 

 from the fpeedy extradion of the after birth. By allowing it to 

 Separate flowly from the uterus, and after feparation to lie for 

 half an hour in the vagina, he completely avoided the flooding, 

 and the danger that attends it." 



Mr Hamilton was called to inany cafes of kixation, both 

 of the fhoulder and thigh joint; in reducing which, he fucceed- 

 ed by veiy fimple means, after other furgeons, who; employed 

 the force of machinery, had failed. On this fubjed he wrote 

 an accuraite paper ; in which, after defcribing the joints, with 

 the ligaments and mufcles that furround them in a natural ftate, 

 he confiders fully the change brought on every part by luxation, 

 ded^icing partly from the ftrudlure of the parts, chiefly from 

 his own extenlive experience, the following diredtions concern- 

 ing the befl mode of reducing the joint to its natural pofition. 



" The fituation of the mufcles round the joint differs much 

 according to the kind of diflocation. 



"In all cafes the deltoid is ftretched, but particularly when 

 the bone is thrown diredly downwards. The long head of the 

 biceps inuft be fomctimes toni, but, where it is not, it will be 

 extended, and the ligament through which it pafles, and which 

 binds it to the humerus, will be always lacerated in a greater 

 or lefs degree. The mufcles that are moft deranged, are the fu- 

 prafpinatus, fubfcapularis, and infrafpinatus. Thefe two laft 

 we fliall call the lateral mufcles of the joints 



" In 



