[ Ss 1 ] 
but that might poffibly be owing to the mufcles not 
immediately overcoming the effed of the extenfion 
fufficiently, to draw the head of the femur to the 
bottom of the acetabulum. 
In about fix or feven days he was eafy, and able 
to walk over the room with crutches, and bear a con- 
fiderable weight of his body on the right leg ; and, 
from this time, he recovered ftrength very faff, and 
is now, and has long been, as ftrong in that leg and 
thigh, as in the other, without any even the leaf! 
difference in length, or any other refped. 
T Have fent you the above cafe of John Down ; be- 
-*■ caufe I know it is afferted by fome furgeons, and 
among thofe of the greateft charader too, that a luxa- 
tion of the head of the femur is little lefs than im- 
poffible ; and that what is generally taken for a luxa- 
tion of this joint, is a fradure of the bone at its neck. 
A fradure of the neck of the bone probably hap- 
pens more often than a diflocation. But the above 
cafe has convinced me, that it may happen, and that 
without any extraordinary violence, provided the 
force is aptly applied. Indeed any force applied in 
the diredion of the thigh downward can hardly 
have any tendency to diflocate it at all ; and any 
force from below upward will be fuftained by the 
bead of the femur bearing agairrft the upper part of 
the acetabulum, till the neck, the weaken part, gives 
To Dr. Huxham. 
S I R, 
Plymouth, May 1760. 
way. 
But 
V o l . LI. 
p 
