Arizona republican., 1908-06-04

over the head from behind with a cross bar on it's tip from which hanging straps support the chin on either side. This device relieves a weak neck of the necessity of sup porting a too heavy head. In the middle ages a somewhat similar con- trivance was used by the execution CTS assistant to lead to the block. or to the stake a destined candidate for fire or the sword.
 In those days, too, a rack was used to stretch a victims body, under stress of which he might be pre- vailed upon to yield up choice se- crets of state, or confess to delin- quencies he had not committed. In the modern big hospitals one may see at the foot of some of the beds in the surgical and orthopedic waris, | an arrangement of pulleys and weights adjusted to the foot O. the patient, who, being fastened into certain position in bed, is incapable | of relaxing the tension which the pulley exerts upon teh limb. The object of this mechanism is that Of the hip brace-to prevent contact Tn a diseased joint, to obviate pain, and permit frustrated nature to set in order herhealing process.
 A curious product of the orthopedic workshop is technically termed a cui- rass, and is suggestive of the treat ment accorded to an Indian papoose lit is used for infants and young children and is cut from flat piece of wood into the semblance of a gingerbread man, with the arms left off It has a round end for the head, and two legs little apart. with end pieces nailed thereon, against which the feet are braced. This ob- ject is well padded and covered with linen The child is placed upon it and plaster of paris is banked against the outline of its body so that a per- feet frame is made to hold it. The infant then is wrapped about with bandages, but with the arms free. The apparatus is used on children with
 weak backs to prevent them from
 becoming permanently deformed. Al though a child treated in this way Hooks far from comfortable the only
 hardship really involved in its use
 falls upon the poor mother who has to lug about the ungainly bundle, and not being educated to it as is the American Indian mother, carries II awkwardly under her arm.
 The one instrument in this queer workshop and museum most sugges- tive of medieval horrors is the big . steel orthopediclasp. familiarity known as the bone breaker, for in the sur gical routine it sometimes becomes necessary to make a fracture. But ir comparison with the truly barbarous method it superseded, the bone break CT is a beneficient machine. In th'
 earlier days of hospital practice-ir . fact an instance was reported as oc' curing recently in Paris-the method l was to place the limb to be broker - iupon some object that would serv' for a hammering block, perhaps thu . footboard of the bed. A wooden ham Inner was taken in hand, and witt
 a mighty blow, aimed "by guess ant by gorry," the bone was broken-al to smithereens.
 The orthopediclasp consists of lpair of curved steel bars as thicl as a girls wrist, designed to hol' lin position the arm or leg. Pres Isure is directed against the desire' lpoint to be broken, at the. end of hammer shaped lump of steel move
 and controlled by a heavy screw. Tn
 loperation Is comparatively painles:
 and it's after effects are perfecu
 endurable.
 Instruments of the middle ages fo
 trying the temper of political O ' ldebted prisoners were far more hor . lrible than this, the cruelest in tn service of Esculapius, but their me
 lchanisms, though fearfully ingenious
 are much less cunning than some (
 these products of the surgical work , CTS handicraft. So complicated ar
 many of the hospital instruments, nc < lonly in their mechanism but in thei
 duplication, that their use requires
 separate code and a. special traininl
 A medico of the staple family va
 riety. who has given no time to sur
 gical specialization, often finds hin . self at a disadvantage in his estat !. llished practice for want of the yer knowledge of modern orthopedic al
 pliances which would facilitate IT
 handling of cases frequenly occurrin
 lin every physicians experience. TT
 New York medical schools and hos - pitals are now the recognized leader
 of the schools of the world in u T invention of these mechanisms of at [ vanced surgery. and in institution < like the Post Graduate, physicia < students not only from all parts [ the United States, but also from sue r remote places as Japan, Egypt. Au' q tralia, Hawaii, and Alaska, come < Ilearn the usages of the various fo f midable instruments of the surgery [ today, and even to contrive some 4 the local adjustments to fit defini f leases coming under their observatio q In this way the modern torture chan ,. ber serves a far more useful purpo i than its ancient forerunner.
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