ACCIDENTS AND OPERATIONS. 349 



may be slit up a little distance between the splints, and the 

 foot soaked in, or sponged with, warm water. 



The removal of splints should never take place until the 

 expiration of at least four weeks, unless they have become 

 disarranged, or the setting is not correct. 



False Joint. — When a fracture fails to unite by osseous 

 matter, and a fibrous connection is substituted, what is termed 

 false joint is established. In the long bones, treatment is 

 more easily and satisfactorily adopted than in other situations. 

 When it is found on the removal of the support that osseous 

 union has not taken place, the limb should be again fastened 

 up, — more firmly, if possible, than before, a liberal diet 

 allowed, and tonics administered. If at the expiration of 

 seven or eight weeks the false joint still exists, and there 

 appears no prospect of its being otherwise, unless other 

 measures are adopted, inflammatory action is to be 

 established in the false union with the object of exciting the 

 formation of osseus material, and this may be done by 



5** 



Fig 37" 

 Deformed Limb after Uniok of Fracture, necbssitating Re-fracture, 



piercing the structure in various places with a sharp needle, 

 and moving the point about when imbedded there until it is 



