350 VHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1766, 



shoulder-joint; but the great danger attending this kind of amputation deterred 

 him from performing it, and induced him more particularly to consider, whether 

 it might not be possible to save the limb. The instance of Charles Lehee had 

 sufficiently convinced him, that bones have the power to regenerate: it must 

 indeed be allowed as a favourable circumstance to the vegetation of the bone, 

 that Lehee was a child ; but, though this patient was an adult, he considered that 

 we knew not at what age nature had put a stop to this regenerative faculty, and 

 that therefore no argument could be deduced from experience to prevent the 

 expectation of the like success in the present case. 



These considerations determined him, and on the l6th of April he performed 

 the operation, by separating the upper and lower parts of this carious bone from 

 their connections with the sound parts, by methods, which every operating 

 surgeon will readily conceive. He measured the distance between the end of 

 the bone left at the upper part, and the blade of the saw at the lower, and found 

 it to be just 3 inches and 10 lines. The cavity was then filled with proper 

 dressings; and the form of the arm, as well as its natural length, preserved by an 

 instrument calculated to answer these intentions ; the description of which he 

 thought more particularly deserving the attention of the r. s., as it might be of 

 service in many cases different from this. 



In pi. 8, fig. 6, ABC is a double screw, the turns of which are in contrary 

 directions; these screws are moved by the handle a, in such a manner that when 

 each of them b, c, is screwed into its correspondent worm d, e, one motion of 

 the handle a brings the 2 worms D, e nearer together; and a contrary motion 

 sets them at a greater distance. Mr. Le C. invented this instrument about 15 

 years before, to compress the wounds of those who had been cut for the stone, 

 so as to prevent the passage of the urine, and thereby hasten the closing of the 

 incision. To apply it properly in these cases, he passed a collar, fastened to the 

 neck of the patient, through the ring f, in the upper screw worm, and the 

 bandage which supported the dressings, through the ring g, in the lower screw- 

 worm ; and he had consequently experienced the success of this manoeuvre. 



In the year 1757, he made use of it to preserve an arm, fractured near the 

 shoulder-joint, in its natural state of extension, by fastening the 2 fi>at rings p, g, 

 in the 2 pieces of wood h, i ; placing h under the arm-pit, and i on the fore-arm 

 against the bend of the elbow; and keeping the fore arm bent by the sling kl. He 

 also applied this instrument in the present case; and in order to assist in giving 

 the proper direction, and necessary solidity to the part, he supported the arm with 

 a vambrace, or half canal, made of one very thin piece of wood, which surrounded 

 %■ of the circumference of the limb. The whole was fastened by the bandages 

 commonly used in fractures. 



On the 29th day after the operation, the wound having filled up very fast, the 



