52. We may throw into two classes the general modes proposed by different authors for effecting permanent extension. Under the one are included those modes requiring simple means, such as straps, splints, &c. while the other embraces such as, from being complex, necessarily call for the use of different machines.
53. In the first class are comprehended:
1st, The method employed in the first instance by the Arabians, adopted afterwards by their successors in medicine, and proposed, at a still later period, by Petit, Heister, and Duverney, and which consists in fixing, at the head and foot of the bed, during the whole treatment, straps intended for the purpose of extension.
2dly, The mode of extension, adopted by many practitioners, which consisted in suspending to a strap fixed at the knee, and reflected over some suitable body, a weight proportioned to the power of the cause which it was intended to combat.
3dly, The ingenious idea of Bruninghausen, who, confining by a kind of stirrup, the diseased leg against the sound one, made the latter serve as a splint to retain the fractured limb on its proper line, and thus preserve its natural length.
4thly, Under this class also must we arrange the means employed by Desault, and which we will presently describe.
54. The second class of means invented for the purpose of making permanent extension, in fractures of the thigh, comprehends:
1st, The Glossocome, the bed of Hippocrates,[24] and other machines, used by the ancients, to effect a reduction, in fractures of the os femoris, and, at the same time, to maintain the reduction, by being left on the limb.
2dly, Numerous machines, invented for the purpose of suspending a weight intended to make extension. These have been differently varied and modified, more by the imagination than the judgment. Engravings of some of them are to be found in Scultet, Fabricius of Hilden, Pare, &c.
3dly, The machine of Bellocq, proposed to the Academy of Surgery, a description of which is contained in their memoirs, and which possesses an advantage not found in the others, namely, that of taking its point of extension at the lower part of the leg.