. The principles and practice of surgery. ments. The same thing, as we have seen,occurs in other bones, where they are broken by muscular action will, however, almost certainly ensue after the lapse of afew days or weeks, in consequence partly of the action of the muscles,but mostly in consequence of the inevitable absorption of a large por-tion of the neck. 1 speak of the disappearance of the neck as inevi-table, unless union by bone occurs; and the chances of this latter resultremain to be considered. When, also, the neck is broken within the capsule by a more consid-erabl
. The principles and practice of surgery. ments. The same thing, as we have seen,occurs in other bones, where they are broken by muscular action will, however, almost certainly ensue after the lapse of afew days or weeks, in consequence partly of the action of the muscles,but mostly in consequence of the inevitable absorption of a large por-tion of the neck. 1 speak of the disappearance of the neck as inevi-table, unless union by bone occurs; and the chances of this latter resultremain to be considered. When, also, the neck is broken within the capsule by a more consid-erable force, operating in the line of the axis of the neck or nearlyso, causing impaction of the fragments, the displacement exists only inthe direction of the axis of the neck; or, if there is actually some littledisplacement in the direction of the axis of the shaft, it may be tooslight to be easily determined by measurement. 1 Cantons Observations, London, 1855. Robert Smith on Fractures, Dublin, 1847. FRACTURES OF THE FEMUR. 285 Fig. In some few of these latter cases it is affirmed that bony union is pos-sible either with or without absorption of the neck ; so that, if this pointmay be considered established, therewill be presented examples of intra-capsular fracture without any veryappreciable shortening of the limbeither at the moment of the accidentor at any subsequent period. In other cases the periosteum andreflected capsule being more or lesstorn, a shortening occurs immedi-ately, to the extent of from half aninch to an inch. Crepitus is often absent, owing toimpaction, or because the fragmentshaving been completely displaced,their broken surfaces cannot againbe brought into apposition; nor willa judicious surgeon manipulate vio-lently in a suspected fracture, in or-der to detect crepitus, since he willthereby cause displacements andlesions, for which a more completediagnosis is a feeble compensation. Usually the broken limb lies parallel with the opposite one, the t
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