JOI 



culty of keeping the limb in a fixed pofidon, the great 

 depth of the wound, and the abfcefles and finufes which were 

 formed in the part. The firll fymptoms, however, were 

 not at all dangerous. But the patient was obliged to keep 

 his bed nine or ten weeks, and it was many months before 

 the cure was complete. The man afterwards went to fca, 

 and lo ufcful was his hmb, that he was able to do his duty 

 extremely well. 



Mr. Park made another attempt to extirpate a difcafed 

 knee, but it was lefs favourable, as the patient lingered a 

 few months after the operation, and died. 



About the fame time that Mr. Park made his propofal, 

 a fimilar plan was fuggefted by P. F. Moreau, a French fur- 

 geon, and tried in feveral inltances, upon the knee, elbow, 

 &c. by himfelf and his fon. 



The excifion of difeafed joints fecms, at prefent, to have 

 no advocates among furgeons of judgment and experience. 

 A full relation of all that is known on the fubjeft has been 

 lately publifiied by Dr. JefTrays, in a work entitled " Cafes 

 of the Excifion of Carious Joints." In tliis book may be 

 found a defcription of a very ingenious faw for facilitating 

 the operation. The inltrument is coiiftruftcd with joints, 

 like a watch chain, fo as to allow itfelf to be drawn behind 

 a bone with a crooked needle, and be calculated for cutting 

 the bone from behind forwards, without injuring the foft 

 parts. It was made by Mr. Richards, who was alFiIlcd by 

 his nephew, the prefent Mr. Richards, of Brick Lane, 

 London. In placing the faw under the bone, its cutting 

 edge is to be turned away from the fledi. Handles are 

 afterwards hooked on the inftrument. 



The reafons which keep the praftice of cutting out 

 difeafed joints from being imitated, are, in our opinion, of 

 the mod invincible kind. We believe that it is only right to 

 amputate a limb, on account of a difcafed jonit, when the 

 patient's health is fo reduced, that it cannot any longer bear 

 the irritation of the local difeafe, and that as long as the 

 ftrength holds out, the propriety of endeavouring to cure 

 the difeafe, and preferve the limb, is diftated by every prin- 

 ciple of good furgery, as well as humanity. If it be only 

 in hopelefs circumftances, and in a reduced ftate of the pa- 

 tient, that we are to turn our minds to the ufeof the knife, 

 it feems improbable that a patient, after being greatly re- 

 duced by hectic fymptoms, would in general recover from 

 fo bold and terrible an operation, as that of diffefting away 

 the whole of the knee-joint. If fome few fliould efcape 

 with life and limb preferved, would the bulk of perfons 

 treated in this manner have the fame good fortune ? 



The extirpation of fo large an articulation as the knee 

 cannot be compared with the operation of amputation, in 

 point of fimphcity and fafety. The chief objeclions are 

 founded, however, not upon the pain, nor difficulty of the 

 operation, but upon the great length of time wliich the 

 healing of the wound requires, and which, in the firlt cafe 

 recorded by Mr. Park, was no lefs than eight months. 

 His fecond example, as we have already mentioned, ended 

 fatally. Moreau's patient, though much debilitated, efcaped 

 the firft dangers confequent to the operation ; and " after 

 three months confinement, the patient was in fuch a Hate, 

 that Moreau expected he would be able to walk upon 

 crutches in another month or fix weeks!" In the mean 

 time the young man died of a dyfentery. Allowing the ex- 

 cifion of the knee to be followed by all poflible fuccefs, few 

 men of judgment will alfo acknowledge, that the advantage 

 of having a mutilated, lliortened, ftiff limb, inllead of a 

 wooden leg, is an adequate compcnfation for the more pain- 

 ful operation that has been endured, and the greater rifle 

 that has been run. 

 Vol. XIX. 



J o I 



Many of the foregoing obfervations were originally 

 publifiied in a Treatife on the Difeafes of the Joints by 

 S. Cooper, 1807. 



Joints, in Alining, are applied to the vertical fifiures, or 

 cutters, by which mod of the ftrata are divided nearly ver- 

 tically, into feparate blocks and pieces. In the limeftono 

 quarries in Derbyfiiire, two very dillinft kinds of joints arc 

 noticed in the rock, fome that are peculiar to the particuhx 

 beds of Hone, (the filfures of W. Martin,) and rarely 

 fink through more than two or three beds ; and others, tliat 

 break through all the beds of iiniedone, iuid form a perfectly 

 ilraight wall often to the face of their quarries ; thefc lall 

 fccm perfectly allied to mineral veins, though often not more 

 than the eighth, or a quarter of an inch wide, and liave their 

 fides flcirted with fluor, or calcareous fpar, or barytcs, and 

 are poliihed, or fiiew thicker fides in fome inllanccs, and often 

 thefc joints contain fmall fpecks of lead ore ; while it is very 

 rare for the other, or partial joints, to contain fpar or ore ; 

 thefc kinds of joints, when clofe filled v.ilh fpar, fo as to ce- 

 ment the parts of the rock firmly together again, feem to 

 anf wer to Uie cotemporaneous veins of Werner ; and t(:e fpar- 

 joints of other writers ; Mr. William Martin calls them 

 rifts, Outlines, p. 171. Quarrymen fometimes apply the 

 term joint to the partings or thin way-boards which feparate 

 the different thin llrata or beds of iione in a rock ; but pro- 

 perly, thefe are called bed-joints, or llrata-feamf. The de- 

 finition which M. Werner gives of ilrata, via. " thofe parts 

 of a rock which lie between parallel mils and fjiires," 

 (Tranfi. of New Theory of Veins, p. 2 ), is much too 

 general, as it may include both the kinds of joints above- 

 mentioned, and the impropriety alfo is (b-iking, of apply- 

 ing the term;™/ to the bed-joints of a rock, or fenii-ilrata 

 of Martin ; with fuch vague ideas as thefe, it is no wonder 

 that many obfervers have miitaken the cutters or joints of 

 thick llrata, that happen to range parallel, for bed joints or 

 ftrata-feams, and defcribed ftrata as vertical, whicli are in 

 reality horizontal, or near it. 



J01NT.S, in Architellvre, denote the feparations between 

 the ftones ; which are filled with mortar, plafter, or ce- 

 ment. 



Joint, in Carper.lry, Sic. is applied to feveral manners of 

 alTembling, or fitting, pieces of wood together. Thus 

 we fay, a dove-tail joint, &c. See Joinehy, Moutise, 



DoVE-T.ilL, &C. 



Joint, Univerfal, \n Mechanics, an excellent invention of 

 Dr. Hook, adapted to all kinds of motions and flexures ; 

 of which he has j;iven a large account in his Cailerian 

 Leftures, printed in 1678. This feems to have given occa- 

 fiou to the gimbols ufed in fufpeiiding the fea-compafs, the 

 mechanifm of which is the fame with that of Dtfaguhers's 

 rolling lamp. 



Joint, in Ship BuiUing, a term fignifying the junfturc of 

 the frame -timljers, v\hioh ii> reprcfentcd by a line, whereby 

 the fhape of the vcffel is determined at the flations of tlic 

 frames, to which the moulds are made for forming the various 

 timbers, and although the frame is compofed of a double fet 

 of timbers, yet they are generally clofe enough that the 

 mould, made at the joint or middle, gives the ftape of tlie 

 forcfide of the one, and the aftfideof the other. 



Joint j'li-li.vi, in Law. In perfonal aftions feveral wrongs 

 may be joined in one writ ; but aftions founded upon a tort, 

 and on a contract, cannot be joined ; for they require difTercnt 

 pleas and different proccfs. 



Soi^T-biUlery. See Batteuy. 



ioi^iT-excculars, in Laiu, are two or more perfons .np- 



pointed fuch by will : in which cafe they are accounted but 



as one fingle perfon, fo that the actions done by one of tliem 



Z t arc 



