CHAP. XL. Prognosticks belonging to a dislocated Hipp.
THere is this danger in the dislocations of the Hipp, that either the bone * 1.1 cannot bee put into the place againe, at least unlesse with very much trouble, or else being put in, that it may presently fall out againe. For if the tendons of the muscles, the ligaments, and other nervous parts of the member be hard and strong, they by reason of their contuma∣cy and stiffenesse will hardly suffer the bone to returne to its place. If that they bee soft, loose, effeminate and weake, they will not containe the restored bone in its place. Neither will it be any better contained, if that short, but yet strong and round, ligament, which fastens the head of the Thigh-bone on the inside in the Socket or Cavity of the huckle bone, bee broken or relaxed. Now it may be broken by some violent shocke or accident, it may bee relaxed by the congestion and long stay of * 1.2 some excrementitious, tough, and viscous humour lying about the joint, through which meanes it waxeth soft. But if it be broken, how often soever the bone be re∣stored, it will presently fall out againe. If it bee relaxed, there is onely this hope to containe the restored bone, that is, to consume and draw away the heaped up humi∣dity by application of medicines and Cauteries of both kindes, for which purpose those are more effectuall which doe actually burne, for that they dry and strengthen more powerfully. Leanenesse of the body, and the want of Aponeuroses, that is, of * 1.3 broad tendont and externall ligaments, wherof many encompasse the knee, encrea∣ses the difficulty of containing it in the place. But the parts adjoyning to the disloca∣ted & not set bone fall away by little & little, and consume with an Atrophia or want of nourishment; both because the part it self is forced to desist from the accustomed actions and functions, as also for that the veines, arteries, and nerves being more straitned and put out of their places, hinder the spirits and nourishment from flow∣ing so freely as they ought, to the part: whence it comes to passe, that the part it self made more weak, the native heat being debilitated through idlenesse, it can neither attract the alimentary juice, neither can it digest & assimulate that little therof which flowes and falleth thereto. Verily the Thigh-bone, as long as it is forth of the cavity, growes no more, after the manner as the other bones of the body doe, and therefore in some space of time you may perceive it to bee shorter than the sound bone. Notwithstanding the bones of the legge and foote are not hindered of their growth, for that they are not out of their proper places. Now for that the whole leg appears more slender, you must think that happens only by the extenuation & lean∣nesse of the proper muscles thereof. The same thing happens to the whole hand, in the largest acception, when as the shoulder is out of joint, unlesse that the calamity and losse hereof is the lesse. For the shoulder being forth of joint you may do some∣thing with your hand, whereby it will come to passe that no small portion of nou∣rishment may flow downe into these parts. But the Thigh-bone being dislocated, es∣pecially inwards in a child unborn, or an infant, much lesse alimentary nourishment flowes to that part, because it can much lesse use the foot and legge by reason of the dislocation of the Hipp, than it can doe the hand by a luxation of the shoulder. But now wee must thus understand that which is said by Hippocrates, That dislocated bones and not restored doe decrease or are hindred from their just growth, to bee * 1.4 onely in those who have not yet attained to their full and naturally appointed