Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1897 — Walking with Broken Legs. [ARTICLE]

Walking with Broken Legs.

A new method of treating broken legs, described by the New Yerk Sun, is of a nature to be of. general Interest. It Is called the “ambulatory system,” its peculiarity consisting in the fact that the patient is allowed, and even encouraged, to walk freely within a few days, sometimes within twenty-four hours, after the leg Is broken. The Sun refers to the subject in connection with a meeting of doctors at which a man whose leg had been broken a fortnight before was Introduced by one of the surgeons of Roosevelt Hospital, and proceeded to walk about the room without crutches, and with only the slightest perceptible limp. The new treatment, which is said to have been in use in Berlin for some, time, is applicable only in cases the limb Is broken below the knee. Doctor Fiske, the Roosevelt HospitfQ physician referred to, gave the results of two hundred and fifty operations In which the ambulatory splint had been successfully applied. Wherever the treatment had been begun promptly, the recovery had been rapid, except the case of alcoholic patients, in which the danger of delirium tremens setting in after the fracture was the obstacle. In healthy persons, male or female, the method had secured admirable results. The method Itself Is described as follows: The patient is placed in a recumbent position, and the injured bones are set in place and bound securely with on ordinary muslin roller bandage. No cotton whatever is used in the binding. Outside of this roller a plaster of Paris gauze bandage is wound. This hardens, and leaves the limb encased in a plaster which generally extends from the toe-tip to the knee-joint. It holds the broken parts of the limb immovable, and hardens rapidly. The best quality of cast and bandage is employed, and the patient is encouraged to walk without crutches after twenty-four hours. Care is taken, of course, to avoid all possibility of inflammation setting in. The reason the patient can walk so soon is that the weight of the body is supported upon the upper part of the ambulatory cast, which acts as a crutch.

Dr. Fiske cited a case where a pa tient 72 years old had been able to walk within eight days after the application of the ambulatory splint. The’ healing of the bones goes on while the patient is walking about, just as If he were lying down, as the fractured limb is In no way disturbed by the exercise. In fact, the reuniting of the fractured parts Is hastened, and the stiffness of joints resulting from the old method of keeping a patient in bed and quiet is greatly reduced. Within six weeks, often sooner, the bones will have united, and then the limb Is subjected to hot and cold douche baths and to brisk massage to restore it to its normal condition. Life in tbe Paris Catacombs. Milne Edwards, the celebrated zoologist, is making an examination of the various forms of life which thrive among the bones which line the extensive catacombs of Paris. The little animals which live among the relics of no fewer than 6,000,000 souls, packed Into these underground galleries, are chiefly Insects, centipedes and crustaceans, but they are so curiously altered by their surrounding conditions as to present some interesting features to the naturalist. They form an intermediate or transition species between those which live in the light of day and the same animals found In natural caves. The prevailing color Is white of different shades, for light is required for the development of the colors of pigments in animals and plants. Some insects which have red eyes, apparently sound, are blind, and when a light approaches they show no symptoms of alarm until they feel the heat of It. In others the place where the eyes ought to be Is covered with Integument, and there is no trace of the eye. To compensate for this deficiency the auditory and tactile systems are abnormally developed, simple or fortified hairs growing all over the body, helping the animal to find Its prey or avoid some danger. The campedes live on moss, podurelles swarm in the fungi, myriapedes eat the old wood, and white worms, beetles and spiders abound. The underground water is also thronged with infusoria, cyclops which feed on them and an infinite variety of forms of life, all modified in a similar way.—Pittsburg Dispatch.