In a late translation of Hippocrates, we read the following piece of
grave advice, which, notwithstanding the great name of the counsellor,
will hardly have many followers.
In a fracture of the thigh, “the extension ought to be particularly
great, the muscles being so strong that, notwithstanding the effect of
the bandages, their contraction is apt to shorten the limb. This is a
deformity so deplorable, that when there is reason to apprehend it, I
would advise the patient to suffer the other thigh to be broken also,
in order to have them both of one length.”
The founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius Loyola, who, to preserve the
shape of his boot, had a considerable part of his leg-bone cut off,
would have been a docile patient to the sage Hippocrates. The story is
in the _Every-Day Book_, vol. i. p. 1050.