DOI Artikel:
Jones, Frederic Wood: Pathological report
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18102#0068
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upon the bones. The blood spilled by the wounding of a prehistoric
person is to-day still plainly seen as a deep reddish-brown stain upon
the bones with which it has come into contact; and in many cases it is
this blood-staining that first attracts attention to a case of ante-mortem
wounding. Although the general appearance of these stains and their
association with injuries leaves no doubt as to their being due to the
action of blood, Dr. W. A. Schmidt is unable to obtain from them any
distinctive test of blood, either chemical or biological.
Great interest attaches to those fractures which have become set
again, for they throw great light, in many cases, upon the natural
tendency towards healing that, apart from these ancient examples, is
but rarely to be seen. It is known that splints were used for the
setting of fractures as early as the 5th dynasty *, and we have already
recorded a case from the Christian cemetery on Biga ; but it is im-
possible to imagine that all those fractures that we have found have
ever had splint treatment. Many of the fractures are so situated
(PI. LXIV) that even to-day splint application would be difficult, and
would require carefully contrived apparatus; and a very great
majority of them occur in the very early cemeteries. Despite this
presumptive lack of surgical treatment, the results of re-united fractures
are, on the whole, surprisingly good ; some bones that are fractured
most commonly, and of which we have a good series of examples, were
broken and were re-united with a minimum of deformity or shortening.
Two very remarkable facts stand out in this series of broken bones :
the first, that many of them must by their very nature have been
compound fractures—and yet we have found only in rare cases any
evidence of a septic process supervening; and the second, that in the.
whole series only two examples of ununited fracture have been present—
and these both in the clavicle.
In presumably untreated fractures it is but natural that many
considerations will affect the final result of the repair, and that very
varying results should be met with; but it is, for the most part, the
site of the injury, and the severity of the injury, which determine the
success or failure of the setting. Bones that by their anatomical
situation receive the support of surrounding structures—bones, in fact,
* British Medical Journal, March 28th, 1908, p. 732.
upon the bones. The blood spilled by the wounding of a prehistoric
person is to-day still plainly seen as a deep reddish-brown stain upon
the bones with which it has come into contact; and in many cases it is
this blood-staining that first attracts attention to a case of ante-mortem
wounding. Although the general appearance of these stains and their
association with injuries leaves no doubt as to their being due to the
action of blood, Dr. W. A. Schmidt is unable to obtain from them any
distinctive test of blood, either chemical or biological.
Great interest attaches to those fractures which have become set
again, for they throw great light, in many cases, upon the natural
tendency towards healing that, apart from these ancient examples, is
but rarely to be seen. It is known that splints were used for the
setting of fractures as early as the 5th dynasty *, and we have already
recorded a case from the Christian cemetery on Biga ; but it is im-
possible to imagine that all those fractures that we have found have
ever had splint treatment. Many of the fractures are so situated
(PI. LXIV) that even to-day splint application would be difficult, and
would require carefully contrived apparatus; and a very great
majority of them occur in the very early cemeteries. Despite this
presumptive lack of surgical treatment, the results of re-united fractures
are, on the whole, surprisingly good ; some bones that are fractured
most commonly, and of which we have a good series of examples, were
broken and were re-united with a minimum of deformity or shortening.
Two very remarkable facts stand out in this series of broken bones :
the first, that many of them must by their very nature have been
compound fractures—and yet we have found only in rare cases any
evidence of a septic process supervening; and the second, that in the.
whole series only two examples of ununited fracture have been present—
and these both in the clavicle.
In presumably untreated fractures it is but natural that many
considerations will affect the final result of the repair, and that very
varying results should be met with; but it is, for the most part, the
site of the injury, and the severity of the injury, which determine the
success or failure of the setting. Bones that by their anatomical
situation receive the support of surrounding structures—bones, in fact,
* British Medical Journal, March 28th, 1908, p. 732.