C 8 ° ] 
IX. A Letter from Mr . William Sharp, 
Surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hofpital \ 
to James Parfons, M. D . F. R. S. contain - 
ing an Account of a new-invented Inflru- 
?nent for fraSlured Legs . 
S I R, 
Read Feb 
1767 
12, 
K 
S the following treatment of frac- 
tured legs (from the expeiience I 
have had of its fuccefs during a practice of feveral 
years) appears to me preferable to any I have hitherto 
known, and as it may be a means of leflening many 
of the inconveniences attending fuch accidents, I take 
the liberty of fending it for your opinion ; and, if you 
think it of confequence enough to be made public, 
fhall be glad to have it laid before the Royal Society. 
The inftrument here recommended was firffc 
applied with great fuccefs in an oblique fradture of the 
tibia (which could not be kept in a proper fituation by 
the ufual methods), and afterwards, as happily, in a 
diflocation of the lower extremity of the fame bone, 
accompanied with a fradture of the fibula. In this 
latter cafe, it is often difficult to reduce the diflocation 
even with a flrong extenfion, and more fo to retain the 
bones in their proper fituation, while the limb is laid 
in the ufual extended pofture. But both thefe diffi- 
culties are abfolutely avoided by the means I am about 
to defcribe. 
The 
