第53章

51. There are four modes of dislocation at the hip-joint: of which modes, dislocation inward takes place most frequently, outward, the most frequently of all the other modes; and it sometimes takes place backward and forward, but seldom. When, therefore, dislocation takes place inward, the leg appears longer than natural, when compared with the other leg, for two reasons truly; for the bone which articulates with the hip-joint is carried from above down to the ischium where it rises up to the pubes, upon it, then, the head of the femur rests, and the neck of the femur is lodged in the cotyloid foramen (foramen thyroideum?). The buttock appears hollow externally, from the head of the thighbone having shifted inward, and the extremity of the femur at the knee is turned outward, and the leg and foot in like manner. The foot then being turned outward, physicians, from ignorance, bring the sound leg to it and not it to the sound leg; on this account, the injured limb appears to be much longer than the sound one, and in many other cases similar circumstances lead to error in judgment. Neither does the limb at the groin admit of flexion as in the sound limb, and the head of the bone is felt at the perineum too prominent. These, then, are the symptoms attending dislocation of the thigh inward.