Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-12
THE BARTLETT HIP MACHINE.
The Inventor and the Workings of His
 Apparatus.


 Apparatus.
 Ralph W. Bartlett of Boston, who was in North Brooktield visiting his parents, MT and Mrs Hiram F. Bart lett, Saturday and Sunday, when asked about the new and remarkable ma- chine he has made for reducing con genital dislocations of the hip-the same operations that AIr Lorenz of Vii enna has been performing by hand with more or less success-talked very 1n- terestingly. He is not disposed to make a great exploitation of the suc- cess that has, followed his efforts, and says further that the notoriety that he has achieved by reason of the machine was none of his seeking. He has not applied for patent for it, but thinks he will.
 The great interest he took it1 the op-t erations of Dr Lorenz and the cases of which he took charge was intensified by the fact that one near and dear to him had similar aff1iction, and he de- sired to relieve it. This led to his in- vention. Thee idea came to the ears of the medical profession, and he was importuned to let the apparatus be used, which it was with great success. The technical working of the machine has been exploited a good many times in the press but it may be said that the principle of the power applied is about the same as the pulling of a nail from 8 plank by means of claw hammer. the line of direction being arranged by proper manipulation of the apparatus. which, fastened to the knee, draws the leg in the right direction, while padded plates at the back of the thigh brings side pressure to bear, so that by the proper manipulation the different pres sures are brought to bear simultane- ously and exactly as desired.
 It seems that the surgeons who have had the use of the apparatus are grow ing more and more enthusiastic over it's possibilities. MT Bartlett told of the experiments made at the Harvard medical school, where he used the ap- paratus in what may be called the re- verse order.@ That is to say, an adult body with normal hip was taken and the surgeons put a strain of 1,60O pounds on the leg without being able to dislocate the hip. Then MT Bartlett arranged his apparatus, which. being constructed for the cases of children, bent under the strain, and at once threw out the hip. The surgeons claimed that he must have exerted a strain of 2,00O pounds or more, while theoretically the flesh will not with stand more than l 100 pounds pressure. Nevertheless, no sign of rupture of the flesh was to be seen. The other hip was then operated upon and the regis tered pressure of the apparatus was found to be but 3SO pounds, so that only about one-fourth of the pressure supposed to rend the fesh LIDO pounds, is exerted by the Bartlett ap2 paratus. It is so regulated that the bones could be pushed through the flesh, so powerful, and yet so easily ad- justed to the varying conditions.
 Perhaps, however, the possibility of relief to adults who have suffered all their lives from the dis1ocation and whose cases without the cutting pro- cess are deemed practically hopeless, and even then very doubtful is the most interesting. MT Bartlett has no doubt that the thighs of adults can be placed exactly in the normal positions by the new apparatus in less than a minute, and the question then to be determined is whether nature will as- sist in building up the bony socket l which in the lapse of years must have become atrophied, in part. at least and l perhaps filled with false membranes or muscles. A point in the new method | is the quickness of the operation. occu- owing less than minute. while by the manual or Lorenz method the time is from fifteen to thirty minutes. Mir Bartlett is rather averse to notorietv l in the matter, but a deep interest is felt l in the work at North Brookfeld. his native town.-sprfngfeld Republican.