(42) HIStORT of the SOCIEtT. 



wSihon. *' I HAVE paid particular attention to this fubjecl, and I have 



always found, that where the womb was inverted, where the 

 placenta was retained, or where much flooding followed the 

 birth, the child had been born, head and body at once, by a 

 fingle pain. An attention to this point, procured Dr Hunter 

 part of the fame which he fo juftly poilefTed, on account of his 

 flcill and caution in midwifery. He has often told me, that 

 many women had been under his care, who, with other pra(5li- 

 tioners, had loft much blood, and been expofed to much danger, 

 from the fpeedy extradion of the after birth. By allowing it to 

 feparate flowly from the uterus, and after feparation to lie for 

 half an hour in the vagina, he completely avoided the flooding,, 

 and the danger that attends it." 



Mr Hamilton was called to many cafes of luxation, both 

 of the flioulder and thigh joint ; in reducing which, he fucceed- 

 ed by veiy fimple means, after other furgeons, whot employed 

 the force of machinery, had failed. On this fubje(5l he wrote 

 an accurate' paper ; in which, after defcribing the joints, with 

 the ligaments and mufcles that furround them in a natural ftate, 

 he confiders fully the change brought on every part by luxation, 

 deducing partly from the ftrudiure of the parts, chiefly from 

 his own extenflve experience, the following diredions concern- 

 ing the beft mode of reducing the joint to its natural pofition. 



" The fituation of the mufcles round the joint differs much 

 according to the kind of diflocation. 



"In all cafes the deltoid is ftretched, but particularly when 

 the bone is thrown diredlly downwards. The long head of the 

 biceps muft be fometimes torn, but, where it is not, it will be 

 extended, and the ligament through which it pafles, and which 

 binds it to the humerus, will be always lacerated in a greater 

 or lefs degree. The mufcles that are moft deranged, are the fii- 

 prafpinatus, fubfcapularis, and infrafpinatus. Thefe two laft 

 we fhall call the lateral mufcle& of the joint. 



" In 



