[ 273 ] 
more than three inches. The wound was then filled 
with pads of lint, and the fecond operation deferred 
to the next day. 
It was the opinion of the by-ftanders, that the arm 
fbould be taken olfi at the {boulder-joint ; but the 
great danger attending this kind of amputation de- 
terred me from performing it, and induced me more 
particularly to confider, whether it might not be pof- 
fible to fave the limb. 
The inftance of Charles Lehee had fufficiently con- 
vinced, me that bones have the power to regenerate : 
it mull; indeed be allowed as a favourable circum- 
ftance to the vegetation of the bone, that Lehee was 
a child ; but, although this patient was an adult, I 
confidered that we knew not at what age nature had 
put a flop to this regenerative faculty, and that there- 
fore no argument could be deduced from experience 
to prevent the expectation of the like fucceis in the 
prefent cafe. 
Thefe confiderations determined me, and on the 
1 6th of April I performed the operation, by fepa- 
rating the upper and lower parts of this carious bone 
from their connections with the found parts, by me- 
thods, which every operating furgeon will readily 
conceive. I meafured the distance between the end 
of the bone left at the upper part, and the blade of 
the faw at the lower, and found it to be juft three 
inches and ten lines. 
The cavity was then filled with proper drefiings ; 
and the form of the arm, as well as its natural length, 
preferved by an inftrument calculated to anfwer thefe 
intentions; the defcription of which I thought more 
Vol. LVI. N n particularly 
