. [Reproduced by permission of the Oxford Medical Publications.) small part (or none if desired) of his weight is trans- mitted through his own leg to the heel of the boot, and the splint prevents any shortening of the limb. Transmitted pressure, thus provided, is found to exert a very beneficial effect on the rate of bone-repair : for even a healthy bone becomes fragile if it is not permitted to withstand the stresses for which it is constructed. Elmslic^ in London, and more fecently Els of Bonn, have published cases in which bonc-graft> have themselves grown to a much larger size from the
. [Reproduced by permission of the Oxford Medical Publications.) small part (or none if desired) of his weight is trans- mitted through his own leg to the heel of the boot, and the splint prevents any shortening of the limb. Transmitted pressure, thus provided, is found to exert a very beneficial effect on the rate of bone-repair : for even a healthy bone becomes fragile if it is not permitted to withstand the stresses for which it is constructed. Elmslic^ in London, and more fecently Els of Bonn, have published cases in which bonc-graft> have themselves grown to a much larger size from the effect of transmitted It is of advantage, then, to the fractured bone, as well as a convenience to the patient, that he should get about at an early datr in a caliper spUnt. It is of great use for similar reasons—the partial maintenance of natural function- —in other conditions besides fractures. The treatment of limbs after injury to nerves ha- fallen within the scope of the orthopaedic surgeon on account of the deformities which follow the consequent ' See reference No. 3 at end of article, 2 Bond, of Leicester, and Huntingdon, of California, published the first cases in 1905. » See Fig 3. unbalanced muscular forces,' and on account of the need for special treatment to the muscles put out of action by nerve injur}'. Apart from repair of the nerve, a grave problem is presented by the injury inflicted on a muscle by complete loss of activity, the wasting of muscles being in these cases extreme. Nor was it (till recently perhaps) a simple matter to cir- cumvent this secondary effect of nerve injury. Muscles which have been cut off from the central nervous system show a series of changes which has been known as the " reaction of degeneration," a change which, it has been discovered, is in reality an increased minimum duration of the effective electrical stimulus to con- traction. A normal muscle is sensitive to electrical stimuli of very short duration.
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