The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-24

order for brace to cure a trouble of this kind, 1t appears in the form of a large sheet of paper on which the out line of the patients deformed limb has been scientifically traced. with descrip- tive remarks scrihbled at random here and there over the drawing. From this sketch--for it can be considered little else. even though it is made with such professional care--the surgeon -machin- ist contrives the delicate adjustment that shall exactly relieve the pressure in the suffering joint. He takes raw strips and bars of steel, cuts them into the right lengths, hammers them roughly to the proper shape, polishes them to greater nicety on heavy emery wheel, adjusts with infinite pa tience, makes even the tiny rivets and joints and screws on the precision of which the efficiency of the apparatus , depends. How infinitely correct this work must be can be appreciated, per haps, from the fact that the hip brace is designed to hold the leg in tension so that contact fin the diseased joint is obviated and nature has a fair chance to do her healing.
 Especially in demand, always, is the bow-leg brace. Within the district of the Post-Graduate Hospital. which em- braces large section of the East Side. Italians of the less prosperous class abound, and among their children is scarcely one who does not begin his career as pedestrian with the need of some mechanical support and correc- ton. The reason for this is in the dusky "bambino's" early subjection to swaddling bands. Unless his mother is particularly enlightened, the Italian in fant is so wrapped and wound about, from his arms to the soles of his feet, that hardly d toe can wriggle. So. when the day comes that the youngster tries to walk, the little soft legs have had no exercise to strengthen them and almost invariably bend outward under their roly-poly burden.
 Although the orthopedic workshop is not formally included in any of he various courses for the physician stu one of the many things that has made New York the great medical centre it has become in recent years, for 1t is an invaluable adjunct to the work of in- struction in the orthopedic arts of the hospital and the clinics. In appearance the place is merely phenomenally light and clean machine shop. with its hooded forge, its anvil, it's emery and polishing wheels. its turning machines and drillers all worked by busy motor in a corner.
 But to the student physicians of the school the work which goes on in 1t Is of far more than ordinary interest. '. Many of them finger about the work room, picking up first hand knowledge of the manufacture of these cunning contrivances of modern science whose use they have come to New York to study-a knowledge which may well be of great value when they return to their practice in other cities. Indeed, it is nothing unusual to see doctors just from a delicate operation or a session in tro-therapeutics turning their skill to the armorer's craft of old, ham, mering thin sheets of shining metal into some semblance to an ancient cor selet, or forging bands of sturdy steel not into the keen edge of good knights sword, but into strong weap- ons for the mastery of disease, shaped to remedy, not to destroy