[p. 243]are
pained, from the skin being stretched at the seat of the injury, and
at the same time the fragments of the bones wound the skin still more;
but if they bend forward, they feel easier, for the skin at the wound
is thus relaxed, and the bones are less disposed to hurt them; and
if touched, they shrink and bend forward, and the part which is touched
appears empty and soft. All the circumstances now mentioned contribute
to deceive the physician. Such patients speedily get well without
any bad effects, for callus readily forms in all such bones as are
porous.
Part 47
There are many varieties of curvature of the spine even in persons
who are in good health; for it takes place from natural conformation
and from habit, and the spine is liable to be bent from old age, and
from pains. Gibbosities (or projections backward) from falls generally
take place when one pitches on the nates, or falls on the shoulders.
In this case some one of the vertebrae must necessarily appear higher
than natural, and those on either side to a less degree; but yet no
one generally has started out of the line of the others, but every
one has yielded a little, so that a considerable extent of them is
curved. On this account the spinal marrow easily bears such distortions,
because they are of a circular shape, and not angular. The apparatus
for the reduction in this case must be managed in the following manner:
a strong and broad board, having an oblong furrow in it, is to be
fastened in the ground, or, in place of the board, we may scoop out
an oblong furrow in the wall, about a cubit above the floor, or at
any suitable height, and then something like an oaken bench, of a
quadrangular shape, is to be laid along (the wall?) at a distance
from the wall, which will admit of persons to pass round if necessary,
and the bench is to be covered with robes, or anything else which
is soft, but does not yield much; and the patient is to be stoved
with vapor, if necessary, or bathed with much hot water, and then
he is to be stretched along the board on his face, with his arms laid
along and bound to his body; the middle, then, of a thong which is
soft, sufficiently broad and long, and composed of two cross straps
of leather, is to be twice carried along the middle of the patient's
breast, as near the armpits as possible, then what is over of the
thongs at the armpits is
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