BON
BON
ones, the parts may be much eafier clofed and retained by a common bandage and plafter, than by futures with the needle, or the eighteen -headed bandage ; but when the divided part hangs down, the future may indeed be neceflary. If the bones of the fingers are thus wounded, or wholly divided by a fword, they may be happily cured without the future, by the following method. Firft, accurately replace the divided bone, then fecure it in its place, by winding round a flip of plafter, and, over this, applying a comprefs dipped in fpirit of wine, and laying overall little flips of pafteboard, by way of fplints ; then binding up the whole with a proper narrow ban- dage, and hanging the arm in a fling from the neck. Once, in about three days, the drefling is to be removed, and the wound treated with a vulnerary eflence, and in a month the cure will be perfected.
If either of the bones of the cubitus be divided, it ufually is the ulna, as that is raoft expofed to the fword in fighting. This cafe requires neither the future nor eighteen-headed ban- dage ; but the wound being cleanfed, is to be treated with fome vulnerary effence or balfam, and with lint dipped in the fame effence; after which are to be laid on, in order, the plaf- ter, comprefs, and pafteboard fplints, wetted with fpirit of wine, which are to be bound round the thick part of the cubitus near the wound, with a long bandage, that, as they dry, they may accommodate themfelves the better to the figure of the part ; and, laftly, the arm is to be fufpended in a fling hung round the neck : after this, the wound is to be drefled every day, or every other day, in proportion to the difcharge, and a cure without the help of the future will be eafily effected ; the fu- ture, in fuch cafes, being not only unneccflary but pernicious. But if both bones are divided, then indeed the eighteen-headed bandage may be neceflary, and ufed with advantage ; but, even in this cafe, the future is much better let alone : for it is al- ways to be avoided, except when perfectly neceflary, from the dangers of inflammation, convulfions, and other bad fymptoms that too naturally attend it.
If the thigh-ion*?, however, fhould be cut with a fword, in that cafe the bloody future will be of fervice, and is even neceflary to clofe and retain thofe very ftrong mufcles : the wound is, in this cafe, to be carefully treated, and the limb laid up in a cafe of ftraw, as in other fractures ; fo alfo, if the bone of the hu- merus, or arm, fhould be penetrated with a fword, that wound alfo fhould, for the fame reafon, be treated by the future ; but then it is not to be drefled with the eighteen-headed bandage, but with the common long and narrow bandage ufed in other fractures of the arm ; the limb is afterwards to be fupported by a fhort napkin, faftened about the heck, by which means the mufcles will be brought to a more ready union, and the cure fboner perfected.
If it fhould happen that both bones of the cubitus or leg mould be divided by a fword, fo as to leave the limb hanging only by the flefh, fkin and blood- vefTels, which is a cafe that very rarely happens, without wholly amputating the limb, then alfo the future, with the eighteen-headed bandage, are the neceflary applications ; the future, however, can be of no fervice in a cafe of this kind, when the flefh and blood-vefiels are divided, and the limb fo far cut off, as to hang only by a fkin, efpecially when the part is fo confiderable as the leg or arm ; for, in thefe cafes, the limb mufl be taken off, and the flump drefTed as in other amputations. When the lower jaw is fo cut by a fword, that the piece fepa- rates, and cannot be otherwife retained, then alfo the future may be ufed, adding a proper comprefs, plafters, and the fuit- able bandage. If the clavicle, or acromion fcapula?, fhould in like manner, be wounded by a fword, the treatment and ban- dage are to be of the fame kind, gently unbending, clcanfing and drefling the part either every day, or every other day, as the difcharge fhall require, till the cure is perfected. Heifler's Surg. p. 138.
N» medicines fo effectually prevent the corruption of bones laid bare, and aflift to cover them fo foon with flefh, as oint- ments, balfams, and drefling feldom, to have the afliftance of the moft effectual balfam of all, pus. With thefe we fee the extremities of amputated bones covered over with flefh, part of the fkull, tibia, and other folid bones, covered in a little time with granulated flefh, after they had been laid quite bare by wounds made even with bruifing inftruments ; and likewife after their carious furface had been cut off, and a complete cure made, without the leaft exfoliation. Monro, m Med. Eff. Edinb. Vol. 5. Art. 24. Soiling and whitening of Bones, is a neceflary operation in the making of fkeletons ; the method of doing which is thus de- fcribed by Simon Pauli. They mufl firft be well boiled, and afterwards expofed day and night in the open air for a confi- derable time. The beft feafon for this operation is in wet ftormv weather, efpecially in the months of January, Februa- ry, fyiarch, &c. the air being then impregnated with a nitrous fait, which contributes much to give them a bright white co- lour. If it does not rain, they mufl be fprinkled with a brufh dipt in rain-water; and even rubbing them gently with the brufh may be of ufe.
In expofing them, care muft be taken to place them on a fir- board, by no means an oak-one, which fhould be covered with a ftratum of flate-ftone, firft well foaked in water ; next, fine fea-fand is to be fprinkled on, an inch or two deep. The Suppl. Vol. I.
ufe of the fand is to imbibe what marrow or fat remains in the bones after boiling. Vid. Barthol. Act. Med, T. 2. obf. 18. p. 42. Item, obf. 113. p. 279. Extraneous, or preternatural Bones have been found in the me- ninges ,v , the duplicatures of the dura mater x , between the cerebrum and cerebellum y, in the matrixes of women* does, hares, cows z , omentum of fows *, &c. — [ w Hift. Acad. Sei- enc. aim. 17H. p. 36. x Blaf. Coram, ad Vefling. c. 14. p. 211. Y Hift. Acad. Scienc. ann. 1713. p. 28. Pitt, Nat. Hift. Aram. p. 125. * Pt'ott, Nat. Hift. Staff, c. 7. §. 74, Item, §. 63, feq. a Idem, ibid. §. 56.] Bones, in the funeral folemnities of the antients. — Divers ufages and ceremonies relating to the bones of the dead, have obtained in different ages ; as gathering them from the funeral pile, warning, anointing, and depofiting them in urns, and thence into tombs b ; tranflating them, which was not to be done without the authority of the pontiffs c ; not to fay worfhipping of them, ftill practiced to the bones of the faints in the Romifh church. Among the antients, the bones of travellers and fol- diers, dying in foreign countries, were brought home to be bu- ried, till, by an exprefs S. C. made during the Italic war, it was forbid, and the ibld'iers bones ordered to be buried where theydied : the reafon was, leaft the melancholy fight fhould dif- courage the people from venturing their Hves d . — {" Salmaf. ad Pancirol. P. 1. Tit. 62. p. 335. Potter, Archseol. T. 2. I.4. c. 6. p. 215. Hottght. Collect. T. 2. p. 366. Pitifc, Lex. Ant. T. 2. p. 341, feq. voc. ojfikgium. Item, p. 342. voc. offuarium. c Pitifc. T. 2. p. 61 1. voc. reliquiae. d App. de Bell. Civ. 1. I. p. 377. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 2. p. 340.] Antiquaries are divided as to the manner of diftinguifhing the bones of the deceafed, from thofe of the beafts and Haves who were facrificed at his funeral, and thrown into the fame fire : probably it was done by difpofing the body of the dead in the middle of the pile, and the others towards the fides. Potier y Archxol. T. 2. 1. 4. c. 6. p. 214. See alfo Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 2. p. 341.
The Romans had a peculiar deity, under the denomination ojjilago, to whom the care of the induration and knitting of the human bones was committed ; and who, on that account, was the object of the adoration of all breeding women. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 2. p. 341. Bones, in medicine. — The bone of the cuttle-fifh is ufed as an abforbent c and dentifrice r ; that of a flag's heart as a car- diac 5; the bones of fnakes h , and thofe bones fnatched from hungry bitches ', have been ufed as philtres to excite love. Some have ranked human bones, half putrefied, as a fpecific againft the plague k . Divers forts have alfo been hung about the neck as amulets '.— [ e Junck. Confp. Therap. Tab. 16. p. 452. f $htinc. Difp. P. 2. §. 567. p. 227. a Idem, ibid. §. 444. p. 179. Junck. Confp. Ther. Tab. 20. p. 519. Potter, Archaeol. f. 4. c. 10. p. 250, feq. ' Idem, ibid, p. 252. k Nent. Fund. Med. T. 2. P. 3. p. 646. J Cafl. Lex. Med. p. 550. voc. «.] Bone, in commerce. — The bone o£ the cuttle-fifh is ufed by gold- fmiths for making moulds ; thofe of bullocks for painters black; alfo, in lieu of ivory, for toys and cutlers work ; where, if they be lefs white than ivory at firft, they do not fo foon turn yellow. Savar. Diet. Comm. T. 2. p. 933. voc. os. Papin has given a method of turning bones to food. Phil. Tranf, N ff 187. p. 329.
The Turks are faid to have applied bones to building, and to have built a wall with the boms of the chriftians killed at the fiege of Philadelphia.
A piece of this bone wall was fent to Dr. Woodward, who found the tradition to be an error; the fubftance not being bone, but a loofe, foft, porous earth, formed in an old aqueduct, now in the wall ; or rather, an incruftation of feveral bodies, chiefly vegetable, cemented together by fparry and ftony mat- ters, found in the fpring. Woodw. Cat. For. FofT. p. 1 1. Bon z-fetting, the art or act of replacing diflocated bones, and the parts of fractured ones. Vid. Mem. Acad. Scienc. ann. 1718: p. 392.
The Spaniards call their bone-fetters algebrifls. Trev. Diet; Univ. T. 1. p. 801. voc. Bailleul.
Bone-fetting, by fome called trvvStluriJ.os, fynthettfmus, includes the four operations of extenfion, coaptation, deligation, and reduction or repolition. Bohn. ap. Caft. Lex. Med. p. 703. voc. fynthetiftnus.
Fractures and diflocations of bones are fo frequent, that it feems furprifing the fetting them fhould fo long have been left to quacks and perfons ignorant. 5 Tis about 150 years fince the methodical furgeons have applied themfelves to this art ; which they have carried to a degree of perfection beyond what it ever arrived at among the Greeks.
To a boJie-Cetter are required a perfect knowledge of anatomy, and mechanics ; the former, to inform of the ftate and fitua- tion of the fractured or diflocated bones ; the latter, tofurnifh machines, whereby to reinftate them. The famous bench of Hippocrates was once held the moft perfect engine of this kind. See the article Ambe. - M. Petit has contrived another, which not only feems more handy and portable, but more powerful, as well as lefs painful to the patient. By means of it, the operator is fully mafter of the powers that pull it, and may proportion them to the ftrength 5 G and
