The treatment of fractures is largely a mechanical problem, and in spite of the fact that this is a mechanical lage, little progress has been made in the mechanics of fracture treatment. In fact, the assertion has been made that many of the methods and devices in use today might easily be mistaken for implements belonging to the era of the wooden plow. Even the method of applying weights to fractures of the femur, as popularized by Gordon Buck as recently as fifty years ago, would have a familiar look to some of the ancients.
It is true, of course, that advance has taken place in the care of fractures; but the advance has largely been incidental to the development of roentgenography, and in the direction of technical and instrumental improvements in the operative treatment of fractures.
The simple methods have not received the attention which is their due, and