[p. 217]rubbed gently and softly. The physician ought to be acquainted
with many things, and among others with friction; for from the same
name the same results are not always obtained; for friction could
brace a joint when unseasonably relaxed, and relax it when unseasonably
hard; but we will define what we know respecting friction in another
place. The shoulder, then, in such a state, should be rubbed with
soft hands; and, moreover, in a gentle manner, and the joint should
be moved about, but not roughly, so as to excite pain. Things get
restored sometimes in a greater space of time, and sometimes in a
smaller.
Part 10
A dislocation may be recognized by the following symptoms:-Since the
parts of a man's body are proportionate to one another, as the arms
and the legs, the sound should always be compared with the unsound,
and the unsound with the sound, not paying regard to the joints of
other individuals (for one person's joints are more prominent than
another's), but looking to those of the patient, to ascertain whether
the sound joint be unlike the unsound. This is a proper rule, and
yet it may lead to much error; and on this account it is not sufficient
to know this art in theory, but also by actual practice; for many
persons from pain, or from any other cause, when their joints are
not dislocated, cannot put the parts into the same positions as the
sound body can be put into; one ought therefore to know and be acquainted
beforehand with such an attitude. But in a dislocated joint the head
of the humerus appears lying much more in the armpit than it is in
the sound joint; and also, above, at the top of the shoulder, the
part appears hollow, and the acromion is prominent, owing to the bone
of the joint having sunk into the part below; there is a source of
error in this case also, as will be described afterward, for it deserves
to be described; and also, the elbow of the dislocated arm is farther
removed from the ribs than that of the other; but by using force it
may be approximated, though with considerable pain; and also they
cannot, with the elbow extended, raise the arm to the ear, as they
can the sound arm, nor move it about as formerly in this direction
and that. These, then, are the symptoms of dislocation at the shoulder.
The methods of reduction and the treatment are as described.
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