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say, that the bone should be withdrawn from it, almost as 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