What I have said of the general character of Homœopathic physicians will probably provoke them to pour out upon me the vials of their wrath. But as they will undoubtedly administer it in Allopathic doses, and will not stop to give it a “dynamic power” by “dilution” and “attenuation,” I shall, I think, be able to stand up against it.
[20] So also says Turner, the founder of a new system just rising into notice, styled Chrono-Thermalism.
[21] This fact, though well authenticated, is carefully omitted in all notices of him by his followers.
CHAPTER VII.
NATURAL BONE-SETTERS.
The setting of bones is wholly a mechanical operation; and there cannot be a natural innate skill in this particular kind of mechanics, any more than there can be in any other kind. It would be as proper to say that a man is a natural watch maker, steamboat builder, carpenter, &c., as to say that he is a natural bone-setter. A man may be born with a taste for mechanics in general, but not with a taste for any particular kind of mechanics. This innate mechanical taste shows itself in various ways, as the child grows up into the man; and it is governed altogether by circumstances, in selecting the particular branches of mechanics, from which it will seek its gratification.
Every one applies these plain principles almost instinctively to every subject but the sciences of medicine and surgery. An exception is made of these, not only by the ignorant, but often also by the well-informed and the learned. The healing art seems to be cast out of the common pale of reason; and learning, as well as ignorance, often refuses it the plainest and most established principles both of science and of common sense. There has always been a disposition to mysticism on this subject, and the idea of a mysterious bestowment of natural gifts has been an error of all ages, and, I may add, of all conditions in life.
I have said that bone-setting is a perfectly mechanical operation. The bones of the body are united together on simple mechanical principles by ligaments and muscles. When a bone is put out of joint, it is generally done by the action of the muscles, perhaps we may say that it always is so, when there is dislocation alone without any fracture. A man falls from a house—when he comes to the ground he puts out his hand, and the wrist, or elbow, or shoulder, is dislocated. If he were dead when he fell, no dislocation would occur, though there might be fracture; for the muscles would fix none of the bones upon any point of support, so as to give the head of one bone a different direction from the head of its neighboring bone. It is for the same reason that a man, whose muscles are relaxed and powerless from intoxication, is not apt to have his bones dislocated in a fall, though they may be fractured.
After a bone is put out of joint, it is the muscles and ligaments which hold it there. In order to replace it then, the resistance of these muscles must be overcome by force gradually and steadily applied, so that the head of the bone which is thrown past the head of the other may be brought opposite to its proper place. When brought to this point it is to be pressed into its place, which is commonly very easily done—sometimes the muscles themselves do it.
The requisites for skill in performing this operation are very obvious. It is plain that the man who knows the most about the relations of the parts, will best know how to adjust those parts when they get out of place; just as one who understands most thoroughly a machine is the best fitted to repair it when it is out of order. And there is no such thing as an innate instinctive knowledge of a machine made of bones, muscles, and ligaments, any more than there is such a knowledge of a machine made of wood and iron. In both cases the knowledge is acquired knowledge—acquired by observation and study. In order that the knowledge which one has, even of the most common machine, shall be accurate and complete, he must be familiar with the parts of it when separated, and then with their connection as a whole. For the same reason, in order that the surgeon may understand so compound a machine as a human joint, he should become familiar with the several bones and muscles, and ligaments, and tendons, of that joint separately, and then with their connection as they make up the whole machine.
And by familiarity with the machine as a whole, I do not mean merely that the surgeon should be familiar with the parts of the joint in their connection, as they are seen when the skin is removed with the fat and the cellular membrane. In order to perfect his knowledge of the joint as a whole, he must be familiar with it as it appears covered with the skin, and observe it in all its various attitudes and motions. This is quite as important a part of the knowledge of the joints, as that which is revealed by the dissecting knife. For the surgeon in his practice has to do with them in this covered state; and if he be familiar with them only in their uncovered condition, he will often find himself much puzzled, and may commit some unfortunate errors. A musician, who had always played upon a piano with the keys open to the eye, would hardly venture to play a tune with the keys covered for the first time at a public concert; but I apprehend that there is many a surgeon who makes his first real study of a joint as a whole in its covered state, when he is called upon to determine whether some part of that joint is out of place. This external geography of the joints, as it may be termed, is not sufficiently attended to, nor is the importance of studying it properly urged upon the students of medicine.