ANIMAL GRAFTS AND REGENERATIONS. 241 



say, that the bone should be withdrawn from it, almost as 

 one draws the finger out of a glove. They maintain that, 

 this membrane being the exclusive agent in the production 

 of the bones, they themselves may be cut away completely, 

 and that they must be reproduced entirely, so long as the 

 membrane is preserved. 



Two distinguished practitioners, Larghi, of Verceil, and 

 after him Oilier, of Lyons, have advocated that mode of 

 operating which has received the name of sub-periosteal 

 resection. The propriety of such a method of operating, 

 after having been the occasion of doubts among surgeons 

 who were in the way of examining it directly, is at this time 

 unanimously condemned. The reasons against it are deci- 

 sive. Indeed, how can it be admitted that the mere peri- 

 osteum, that is to say, a soft sheath, without support or firm- 

 ness, exposed by a cruel operation, more or less impaired 

 by dissection, should effect the reproduction of a bone with 

 its proper shape and size, when it is so difficult at any rate 

 to effect the consolidation of a 'simple fracture without 

 shortening ? Would not this sheath, lost in the midst of 

 the muscular mass, be in danger of inflammations of every 

 kind, and exposed especially to the influence of many me- 

 chanical causes which will be apt to distort it, and conse- 

 quently to cause the production of an irregular bone, short- 

 ened, and useless for serviceable action? Such are the 

 fears and objections which impressed surgeons, and dis- 

 suaded them from sub-periosteal resections. These opera- 

 tions have in some cases allowed the renovation of the re- 

 moved bone, but under such conditions that the limb has 

 lost all strength and mobility, and has not escaped endless 

 and fatal suppuration. The question in surgery is not 

 merely as to reproducing bones, they must also be reno- 

 vated with sufficient regularity of shape and sufficient firm- 

 ness of structure to insure full use of the limbs. Now, such 

 a result can only be gained by preserving the regularity 



