The Washington times., 1935-12-26
Use and Southern Wear Are Smart and Individual
Health
Surgery and
X-RaYS
BY LOGAN CLENDENING, M. D.

BY LOGAN CLENDENING, M. D.
Charles Lamb had an essay on
the Decay of Beggars in the Me
tropolis" He probably wouldn't
have written it if he had been
around my part Of the world,
since the onset of the depression.
But 1 think valuable article
could be written on the decay of
cripples in the metropolis.
1 refer especially to the type
Of cripple it seems to me we used
to see so much oftener than we
do now, due to badly set old frac-
lures of the bones.
I believe that there is a definite
change in the right direction in
this respect, and that it is due
very largely to the discovery,
which we mentioned in the article
yesterday, of the X-ray about 40
years ago. There has been moth
ing which has added to the eff
cheney Of the surgeon in his treat
ment of injuries and broken bones
and diSlocationS as much as the
X-ray.
1t is hard for surgeon today
to realize the difficulties under
which the older men labored in
handling these difficult cases. To
determine whether or not bone
is broken and whether the two
ends of it are Squarely together
so that healing will take place
properly, would be like trying to
determine whether a broomstick
in the middle of a bolster pillow
is broken and whether its two
ends are fairly together.
Add to this the fact that you
have pain, swelling and muscle
spaSm instead Of a simple pillow,
and the difficulties will be clear.
Today all that is changed, and
exact diagnosis can be made by
the X-ray and the progress of the
case watched so as to see
whether the two ends of the
bones are properly Appropriated.
When the great English sur
geon, Percival Pott, fell down in
London street and suffered a
broken leg, the circumstances
caused him to become very much
interested in the exact nature of
the anatomy of the injury, but
this being hundred years before
the X-ray. he had to wait until
a similar injury was so severe as
to kill a man in order that he
might diSsect the bones and liga-
ments Of the leg to determine
this important set of facts.
In thsee days of frequent acct
dents on icy pavements, it is we'll
for everybody to realize how
easily broken bone can be over
looked. The fact that the bone is
broken does not necessarily mean
that the part is not movable.
/ People have been known to walk
on legs with broken bones and to
use an arm with a broken bone
| for weeks before the actual nature
of the injury was discovered. It
is so easy to call these things
sprains and let it go at that.
The first rule nowadays is to
be perfectly certain, by use Of the
X-ray, that any injury, no matter
how trivial, does not involve a
broken bone. For the bystanders
of street accidents, the most i'm
portant rule is to keep the victim
quiet, move him as little as posi-
BILE, until the ambulance comes.
EDITORS NOTE: Six pam
phlets by DR.. Clendening can now
be obtained by sending 10 cents in
coin, for each, and a Self-ad-
dressed envelope stamped with a
Scent stamp, to DR.. Logan Glen
dening. in care of this paper. The
pamphlets are: indigestion and
Constipation" "R ducing and
Gaining" Infant Feeding" I'm
structions for the Treatment of
Diabetes" Feminine Hygiene"
and THE Care of the Hair and
Skin"