“April 5.—Mr. F—— began his system to cure my leg. His idea was, that the muscles were separated, but that if brought together continuously, they would rejoin. I wore a high-heeled boot during the day, and during the night my heel was fixed so that it was kept in the same position. No good arose from this treatment; and consequently, after a month’s trial, I went to Mr. Hutton, who, on seeing my high heel, said: ‘What do you wear that machine for? Do you want to lame yourself?’ I was proceeding to tell him the opinion of the various surgeons on my case, when he said: ‘Don’t bother me about anatomy; I know nothing about it; but I tell you your ankle is out, and that I can put it in again.’
“After a few weeks, during which he had been to the the North, and could not therefore undertake my case, I returned to him on June 27, telling him that I had in the meantime consulted surgeons who had assured me that, whatever else might ail me, my ankle was most assuredly ‘all right,’ but that I would notwithstanding submit to his treatment. He again examined me most carefully, beginning at the ankle round bone, and he then put his thumb on to a place which hurt me a good deal, and produced a sensation of a sharp prick of a pin. He proceeded to operate upon me, and after a time there was a distinct report, and from that moment the pain was gone. Mr. Hutton desired me to walk moderately, but to take no violent exercise for a long time, and to use a good deal of cold water. From that moment my leg gradually got better. I was able to walk out shooting quietly in September, and on the 14th October, having missed a train, walked home fifteen miles along the high-road. In the following year I resumed cricket, tennis, and other strong exercise, and have continued them ever since.
In page 103 to 109 of his work before quoted, Dr. W. Hood relates the experience of his father in treating of sprained ankles, in a manner similar to that practised by the bone-setter, and illustrates the system by these two typical cases, which, though by no means extraordinary in their treatment and cure, have been thought worthy of publication by him. Mr. J—— sprained his left ankle eighteen weeks before coming under treatment. For the first month he laid on a sofa; at the end of that time he was able to get about on crutches, and when he presented himself for treatment was compelled to use a couple of sticks. At no time since the injury had he been able to walk farther than two or three hundred yards without resting. He complained of pain on the inner side of the foot, and stiffness and pain in the great toe when he attempted to use his foot. He was operated upon for the purpose of replacing the bone of the foot, and overcoming the stiffness of the toe. He returned home by rail the same day, and, on alighting at the station walked half-a-mile slowly to his house. His powers of locomotion steadily improved, and four days after the operation he walked three miles.
Mr. G—— came to Mr. H—— on the recommendation of Mr. J—— and also was induced to do so from the benefit he saw that Mr. J—— had derived from the treatment. In this case the ankle had been sprained and bruised by a horse falling on him a year-and-a-half previous to his visit to Mr. H——. Owing to the road along which he was riding having been much cut up by cart wheels, his injury was much more severe than would usually occur from this form of accident. When the horse fell he was not thrown but went down with it; the injured foot touched the ground, sinking into one of the ruts, when before he could withdraw it, the animal rolled over, wrenching and bruising the limb most fearfully. The foot was seen by Mr. H——, was still much swollen, and very stiff in all parts. He was considered to have “five bones out” and the usual manipulations were employed for their reduction. It required three operations, at intervals of a week, before the stiffness of the foot was removed, but at the end of three weeks he walked as well as he ever did in his life. When he came he had his foot in a sling suspended from his neck, so utterly useless was the limb.
The advantage of the employment of movement a few days after the receipt of the injury is shown, he says, by the history of one of the cases that he saw with Mr. Hutton:
J. F. (Stanmore) was thrown from a cart by the horse stumbling when going down hill. He fell on his right shoulder and side of his head. He remained stunned for about an hour; on coming to himself and trying to raise with the assistance of the right arm, he found himself unable to raise it, much less to bear any weight upon it. He succeeded with great difficulty in getting into his cart (the horse it appears did not fall completely and waited quietly at the side of the road) and driving home. He suffered great pain all night, the arm being perfectly useless, and the parts about the shoulder much swollen. He saw Mr. H—— the following day and was directed by him to poultice and use neat’s foot oil for a week. At the end of the week he was operated upon. Increased pain followed the operation; it was not, however, in the same spot, having shifted from the shoulder to the outer side of the arm, near the insertion of the deltoid. No improvement in power of movement occurred at the time; he could not raise his hand to his head or bend his forearm. On his next visit, three days afterwards, he said that the pain continued through the night, that he dropped off to sleep towards morning, and when he awoke he found that it had materially abated, and his sufferings had been comparatively slight since. The swelling had diminished, but the motions of the joint were not much freer.
At the expiration of a week from the time of the operation, he appeared again; and he could then place his hand behind his head and also on the opposite shoulder. “With the exception of a slight stiffness, he considered his limb quite well.”
Yet two other cases from the same source:—
Mrs. J——, on rising from her chair one day in 1864 caught her heel in her crinoline, and fell backwards upon her sacrum. She did not feel much pain from the fall at the moment although she felt a good deal shaken. At this period she had been six weeks pregnant. On the fifth day from the date of the accident, having in the meantime, without any definite cause of complaint, been “out of sorts,” she noticed a feeling of stiffness and numbness extending over the whole of the body, but more especially in the extremities. Shortly after this occurred she was seized with convulsions of an epileptiform character. These convulsions they recurred at varying intervals of sometimes three or four days, and at other times of ten days or a fortnight, until her confinement. After this event she was subject to them, but at longer intervals until October, 1869. Their increased frequency about this time induced her to consult Mr. Hutton, both she and her friends considering that, as she had never had any affection of this description previous to her fall, the blow on her back might fairly be looked upon as the cause of her trouble. A very tender spot was complained of at the junction of the last lumbar vertebra with the sacrum. The sensations which preceded the commencement of the fit were referred to that spot and the opinion given by Mr. Hutton was that a bone was “out” there. On the three or four days preceding his visit she had many severe convulsions; she was suffering from exhaustion consequent upon them and fully expected to be obliged to remain in bed some days to recover herself. She describes herself as suffering at the same time from head-ache and fullness; her back was very painful; she was flushed in the face, very depressed in spirits, her eyesight was dim and she was very faint.