ferred, to give you its explanation, and to
point out some common causes of delay
in the union of bones, which, if not coun-
teracted, furnish the greater number of
cases of so-called non-union of fracture.
This man fell into a well, and, striking
his right leg against a piece of timber in
his fall, was brought to the hospital with
a transverse fracture of the tibia and fibula
-a fracture caused, you will observe, by
direct violence. The injured limb was
placed on a back-splint, and swung in the
ordinary way; and, fourteen days later,
the apparatus was readjusted. It was
not, however, until the expiration of thir-
teen weeks that the bones united, and
then not firmly; so that his leaving the
ward has been delayed until the present
time, nearly sixteen weeks after the acci-
dent happened; whilst, as most of you
are aware, five or six weeks, in an ordin-
ary case, would have sufficed for the cure.
Soon after this man's admission, we
noticed that the limb was becoming oedema-