Complicated Fracture of the Trochanters. 239 



was applied. On the twenty-first day, the diarrhoea, 



which had perceptibly wasted away his strength, be- 



came still more violent; he continued delirious, and, 



on the 25th of February, being the twenty-second day 



since the accident, he died. 

 i 



After death, the diseased limb was examined by Dr. 

 Physick. Upon an incision being made down to the 

 bone, a large quantity of offensive pus was discharged 

 from the neighbourhood of the fiacture. The os fe- 

 moris and its fractured parts were discovered to be in 

 apposition, and naturally situated. The bone was then 

 cut out, and, upon further examination, the trochanter 

 minor was found to be entirely broken off from the bo- 

 dy of the bone. The trochanter major was divided by 

 a longitudinal fracture, and completely severed from its 

 remaining half; the internal fragment, or that portion 

 of it which was adjacent to the body of the femur, was 

 divided by a fracture running obliquely downwards and 

 inwards through the os femoris. The broken frag- 

 ments were entirely dead, as were also the fractured 

 surfaces of the body of the bone ; and on neither was 

 there the least appearance of an incipient bony union, 

 not so much as a single granulation being perceptible. 

 The bone and broken fragments, in fact, together with 

 the surrounding soft parts, were in a highly diseased 

 state, the suppuration being very considerable. I 

 found the femoral artery ossified in both thighs, as high 

 up as the groin, and the radial and ulnar arteries as high 

 as half way between the bend of the elbow and shoulder, 

 in both arms. The carotids, however, were natural, 

 and, for reasons which it is unnecessary to specify, no 



